This software is comprised of two distinct Hypercard stacks.
The first, "Aesop's Fables+" is a simple database collection of many of Aesop's fables, and the text included is extracted from the Gutenburg Project Etext‚Ñ¢ file "Aesop11.txt ". (Licencing information for the Gutenburg Project (tm) Etexts has been included seperately.)
The second stack, Our Fables‚Ñ¢ is a multi-user database. Each user is registered by name and given a password. The administration procedures will be explained below.
The entire system is easy to run, and requires little hardware.
FIRST: the hardware.
You will need a copy of Hypercard 2.x or the Hypercard Player to run the stacks.
Macintosh OS system software versions 6.05 or greater running on any Macintosh computer from the Plus on up.
Hypercard's memory should be set at around 1000 K. (See the Get Info menu in the finder, or refer to your computer user's manual if not sure what this means.)
A copy of our software, comprised of the "Our Fables" stack and the "Aesop's Fables" stack.
The software will run off a floppy disk, but of course, runs best off a hard disk.
Disk space consumption is not high, and the entire system only takes less than 500 K. This will obviously increase in proportion to the number of user who have access to the system and to the length of time you wish to keep the same database functioning.
We have run tests with up to 600 fables in the "our fables" stack, and it still fits onto an 800K floppy!
Group-A-Ware‚Ñ¢ products will all carry these requirements, and are designed specifically for classrooms, schools, and situations where memory and hardware availability is low.
SECOND: The human factors.
(This demo version allows for up to 3 users and 10 fables.
Otherwise it is exactly the same as the full version.)
Our Group-A-Ware products are designed to be used in classrooms, or libraries, where the age level of the children ranges from 8 - 12. You can, of course, even use our products with adults, if you wish, but they have been optimized for that first group.
Besides the hardware mentioned above, you will need some willing souls who wish to use the system. We have found that, for example, a group of 6 children is too small. Group-A-Ware products function best when you can have 15 or more participants. In many cases a student does not have enough access to computers, on a daily basis, to do "real" work with them. When such is the case, we have found that they enjoy seeing the new work that others have done while they were tending to other matters. Increasing the number of people accessing the system increases the chance that the students come back, even if just to see what's new. Upon seeing that others are contributing they themselves are drawn into contributing new material. There is nothing more enticing and empowering than to realize that one’s work will be available for others to view. (We have never run into the case where children asked for a reduced number of participants, they always clamored for more people, more ideas.)
