NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/hypercar/3451

Text File | 1992-09-15 | 3.7 KB | 81 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Path: sparky!uunet!decwrl!world!bobsoron
From: [e-mail] (Bob Soron)
Subject: Re: WindowScript (was Re: (Q) Colouring HC... once again
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Summary: The last five stacks I developed were...
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <[e-mail]> <ward1.716500534@husc8> <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 02:51:11 GMT
Lines: 67

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Kevin Calhoun) writes:
>In article <ward1.716500534@husc8> [e-mail] (Lester Ward) writes
>>I highly endorse this product for use in what HyperCard is best at: quickly
>>prototyping software before writing it in a real language.
>
>The particular product under discussion is WindowScript.  I agree that it
>enhances HyperCard's usefulness as a prototyping tool.
>
>However, I disagree with you when you say that HyperCard is a better
>prototyping tool than it is anything else.  And, I suspect, the large number
>of in-house developers, educators, content publishers, and commercial
>developers who have chosen HyperCard as their development environment --
>not as their prototyping tool -- will also disagree.
>
>I'm interested in opening this topic up for general discussion.  We've all
>read what the press has said about HyperCard.  But the press doesn't know
>best.  The people who work with HyperCard know best.  So, what's it good for?
>
>What do you use HyperCard for?  Prototyping?  Courseware?  Personal
>information?  Multi-media?  Training?  Just what is going on with HyperCard
>these days?
>
>All responses welcome, both postings and e-mail.
>
>Kevin Calhoun
>[e-mail]

Well, for what it's worth, I work for the computer press, though not in
any visible capacity. Before I worked where I am now, I worked for Mac
Hands On, which was a monthly HyperCard magazine. Before that, and through
to today, I do develop stacks, though.

I guess if the last five stacks I developed are any indication of what
I do with HyperCard, they're worth listing.

Checkers. Although some of my scripting on this stack is pretty sloppy,
you can play against the Mac and it's done entirely in HyperTalk. (The
Mac's "evaluation" routine merely chooses a random move from the list
of available moves, though, for reasons of speed. Of course, I developed
it on a Plus; now I've got a IIci... )

Online Assistant, a kind of database for BBS and Usenet messages. It
doesn't actually do anything online, but takes text files from online
services and stores one message or article on each card.

My record collection database. I'm seriously into music, and this lists
not just the musician and album title but every songwriter, every musician,
every song, where the band is from in some instances. Has a nice batch
find feature that uses 2.x's Mark command, so that I can quickly find,
for instance, every album recorded in Austin with a Jimmy Reed song.

T Stack. Gets you around Boston's public transportation system. This,
unfortunately, is a work in perpetual progress, since the MBTA changes
faster than I can keep the stack updated.

A Talking Moose stack that I'm still working on, though it's close to
completion. Lets you create scripts for the Moose to follow.

I dunno which of the categories Kevin mentioned are right for these.
HC was introduced as a software construction kit, and that's pretty
much what I use it as. Checkers was pretty much an experiment to see
if a playable checkers could be written entirely in HyperTalk, and
the answer was "almost." The others were done because they seemed
like useful or interesting projects.

Bob Soron
[e-mail]