Galileo¬ 2.2 and 2.3 and all versions of HyperCard¿.
Installation and memory settings.
These instructions are for Galileo¬, our own HyperCard Players. But they apply the same to any version of HyperCard. Simple Seven stacks will run with any version 2.1 or later. Its memory requirements are quite modest, unless you are opening an unusually large book.
Set both the MINIMUM and the PREFERRED.
As with all Macintosh applications, Galileo has both "MINIMUM" and the "PREFERRED" or maximum memory settings. These must both be correct for optimal use. They are set from within the Finder. To set these, quit this application if it is open, and then select its icon while in the Finder. Type Command/I or select 'Get Info' from the File menu to get the 'Get Info' box. Set the memory settings, close the window and restart Galileo¬.
The proper settings depend on a number of different factors: the version of Galileo, the amount of RAM available, the quantity and sizes of the stacks and other files (especially graphics and movies) to be opened, the screensize and monitor depth, and the extent to which color, speech, QuickTime and other assorted goodies will be employed. Generally with memory you can never have too much, so use all you can afford.
Galileo itself does not require much memory at all. It is the requirements of the stacks and/or programs you intend to open from it that dictate the settings. For instance, if you are using Galileo¬ as a Macintosh launcher more than as a HyperCard player, then you want to set the memory as small as possible in order to preserve most of your RAM for the applications themselves.
The very absolute minimum for Galileo¬ 2.2 on a black-and-white system is about 1000K. The absolute minimum for a color system is about 1500-2000K. Normally you would use a bit more than this, but for something basic such as an address or appointments stack, or a quick reference, it would be more than sufficient. The 2.3 version would increase these from 50-100%.
Ñ 68K Macs: For a 4 MB or a black and white system we suggest a minimum of 1500K and a preferred of 2000-2500K. For an 8 MB system with color, we suggest a minimum of 2500K and a preferred of 3500-4500K, assuming there is a partition of around 4 MB of space to work with. Double these if you can. If you have plenty of RAM try settings of 5120K for the minimum and at least 8192K for the preferred.
Ñ PowerPCs: Apple officially recommends a minimum of 3072K for HyperCard 2.3 on a PowerPC, and 5120K for color. We've found it will work with as little as 2500K, even in color, but if a great deal of graphics, movies or multimedia are involved it's something to keep in mind. 5120K/8192K is a good starting setup. (Unfortunately, the 8 MB that comes standard with most PPCs does not go very far after System 7.5 and the necessary multimedia extensions take their room. So you have to make some compromises and adjustments, or use doubled or virtual memory. But it's worth it: 2.3 on the PPC is quite fast if you can give it the room it needs to move!)
These are only approximations. It is VERY, EXTREMELY important to get the settings "just right", and small adjustments in any direction (as little as 100K) can have a major impact. HyperCard stacks should be snappy, not sluggish, and the memory settings are the key. This especially applies to color. Failure to get these settings correct and to understand its RAM requirements are the major reason HyperCard has gained a quite undeserved reputation for being slow.
Ñ System extensions and some memory constraints.
Be sure to leave a little extra space for the system to work. After starting Galileo, go to the Finder and check 'About This Macintosh' in the Apple menu. 'Largest Unused Block' should have at least some extra space, 100K or more if possible, so that the extensions such as QuickTime and the Speech Manager have some elbow room. Hard to believe, but there are situations in which you need to REDUCE the amount of memory assigned in order to make it all work!
We've noticed that on some systems, particularly the PowerBooks¿, HyperCard and Galileo seem to run much more quickly with AppleTalk¿ and file sharing turned off. They seem to work fairly well with virtual or doubled memory, but definitely are not quite as responsive as otherwise. The same goes for other system extensions and large font collections. They work great with QuickTime¿, AppleScript¿, the Speech Manager, PlainTalk¿ and the rest of the ever-growing Mac family (this is, of course, HC's greatest strength); but the more there are of these active the more sluggish everything gets. None are absolutely essential, so feel free to make adjustments as needed.
Ñ The HyperCard¿ Player.
If you have the Hypercard Player ANYWHERE on your stack, opening any Hypercard stack will ALWAYS start up the Player rather than the actual Hypercard application. To use the regular application you must either trash the Player, or open up the app directly, and then open files from within it. A common source of start-up confusion is that changes are made to the Hypercard application's memory settings, but it is the Player that gets opened. You may also adjust the Player's memory settings.
