[comp.sys.apple2] Hypercard

delaneyg@wnre.aecl.ca ("H. Grant Delaney") (11/08/90)

Roger Wagner was not worried about APPLE's hyper Card when I talked to him 
in Kansas City last July.  We had both just seen the product (sorry I signed
non disclosure) and Roger felt that system requirement already mentioned 
and the advantage he already had of an installed base of both uses and
developed stacks made his product more attractive.  He also saw the Multi-Media
capabilities of his product as a real asset.  

We will have to see how many Mac developers take advantage of the conversion 
utilities (previously mentioned) to convert existing Mac Stacks to the GS.

sb@pnet91.cts.com (Stephen Brown) (11/09/90)

delayneyg@wnre.aecl.ca ("H. Grant Delaney") writes:
>Roger Wagner was not worried about APPLE's hyper Card when I talked to him

I'm not surprised... HyperStudio and HyperCard are two entirely different
approaches to the same problem. They have very few things in common but their
goal. HyperStudio is self scripting... in fact no scripts are used except for
XCMDs. XCMDs are not terribly useful unless you have the MASTER.XCMD that
allows multiple XCMDs (try the HyperStudio XCMD Library Disk Volume 1) and
(not that I've really thought about it), you'd write an XFCN as an XCMD.

On the other hand, HyperCard is Script dependent. That makes it much more
powerful (just read Apple's book on the HyperTalk language) but much harder to
use, and even harder to become particularly skilled at, unless you are a
programmer. Fortunately most of us here have programming experience.

I have used HyperStudio 2.1 to write a good number of stacks (some of which
are available on GEnie, I might add... as shareware) and I understand
HyperStudio well enough to understand its present limits. Its a darn good
program. I have not actually written HyperCard stacks, but I have read a lot
on the subject. I can't see the limits of HyperCard.

Regardless, Roger Wagner is working on version 3.0, which will undoubtedly
extend the program's scope, and make it that much more desirable.

HyperCard GS will have a dampening affect on the Hypermedia market for the
IIGS, just as AppleWorks (classic) has had a dampening affect on the
wordprocessor market for the IIe. But dampening is not equivalent to
decimating. So Roger Wagner really has nothing to fear... I M H O

Stephen Brown
Apple II Forever (please)

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