I've finally installed HyperCard 1.0.1 on an SE and, after browsing
in it, find it very complex with no apparent utility (for me). But I
am probably missing something. I would like to hear of applications
of HyperCard that you have found useful, interesting, entertaining, or
otherwise worthwhile.

30 responses total.

Uhhh, without disrespect, it looks as though you "have heard."

Yes, a great crashing silence - here. On MTS, I've found a few people
that are making significant use of HyperCard, including writing (and
selling!) programs. But I had to forget Ver. 1.0.1 - its obsolete. I've
downloaded 2.1 from a server, and am looking into that. It is supposed
to be great as a form of index file, but such applications I have not
found. If I hear more, I'll post more - if this item doesn't evaporate
otherwise, from disuse...

Well plenty of people *use* HyperCard, but not quite so many develop with
it.  There are other environments that you may want to look into, it all
depends on what you want to accomplish and how much you want to learn.

I develop Mac software with a combination of MPW and Think C.

I got into this because the "lead ins" for HyperCard were so enticing -
just do a little browsing in some sample stacks, and WHAMMO, you'll be
reorganizing your life on Hyper Cards. I really wasn't looking to get 
into serious programming - in fact, I only discovered the word "programming"
connected with HyperCard, after I started inquiring around. Well, I've
had the offer of some elementary books, and tutorials on disk, so for
something to fill the Holiday hours, I may do that browsing. 

        Well here it is more than two years later and I'm trying to
develop a color multi-media stack using Hypercard 2.2.  My question
is, when you use the color XCMD to create an external window to display
a pict is there anywayway to get rid of the ^%$^&%^% scroll bars and
title bar?

Try ResEdit 2.1 or later to edit that window.

        Uhhh thanks I need more details though not being a power user.
How do I edit the window?

        I got a book today it claims you can do windows without scroll
bars directly, I'll see how it goes.

        I'm slowly getting the hang of doing color on hypercard.  If you
want to run the stack on another machine you have have to paste in the
picts as resources using res edit (what a pain).

Resedit 2.1 is a great freeware tool for editing and creating resources for
Mac apps.  Find the WIND resource which you want to fix, and Resedit will
show you the options.

        Thanks I did find out you can import picts directly to an external
window without scroll bars.  Re # 10 do you author stacks?  If so do
you have any advice for an aspring stack author?

Annotate your script!  Many users who are somewhat proficient with HyperTalk
will want to customize their stacks for their own use.  Clean, organized
scripts make this easier.
Don't get too caught up in the interface.  Decide on a certain level of user
at whom your stack is aimed, then make the interface appropriate to that
level of proficiency. I.E. don't assume all users are either idiots or
technogeeks.
Resedit is a tremendous tool for manipulating stack resources.  The latest
versions (which I have not used) of HyperCard allow you to build stand-alone
stacks which operate regardless of whether the user has HyperCard.  In the
case of the earlier versions (up through 2.1 I think, maybe 2.2) it is much
cleaner to move applicable resources (when practical) into the stack rather
than hoping they're in HyperCard.  In the stand-alone stacks, you may not have
to move the resources manually, or you may, I don't know.
There are a lot of XFCN and XCMD resources floating around which do from
within HyperCard what Resedit does more cleanly and easily from without.
Make sure you have at least version 2.1 of Resedit.

Protection:  You may be able to protect your stack effectively, but odds are,
if someone wants to mess with it they'll find a way.  I'd rather have the user
have whatever ability to customize that they desire than presume that I'm
going to make a lot more money off it if I protect it.
Have fun!

        What I'm working on is a poetry multimedia stack with some scanned
manipulated images, and some voice.  The interface should be very
straightforwar, somethyin like forward backward, help, home, and
a splash card about the author (me).
        Hopefuly I won't have to write much more than 10 lines of
reusable hypertalk script the emphasis is on the art and not the
computer per sae. I will keep your tips in mind, and thanks for
the advice!

Be careful about the images.  If you have scanned images which are not of your
own creation or used with specific permission, you may be in violation of
existing copyrights.

        The scanned images arec either 19th century or heavily manipulated
in photoshop.  Wouldn't want the cyber cops knocking on my door :-)

I think that even the manipulated images would put you in violation, not 
because of the form in which you release them, but because it would be illegal
even to scan them in the first place. The 19th century images, if they are
the original pieces, rather than reproductions from a copyrighted publication,
would probably be okay, but otherwise, watch out.  Anything at all which you
run through a scanner, unless it is an original image owned by you, or loaned
to you with specific permission to copy, may be in violation of copyright laws.
See last quarter's issue of Mondo 2000, with Jane Siberry on the cover, for
a relevant discussion of image ownership, with an interesting twist.

Yes. Manipulation might reduce the chance of getting caught, but it would
still be a derivative work, and as such the copyright laws would apply.

        That's not my understanding, my understanding is that if the piece
is not recognizable then it's not a copyright violation.  I did read the
Mondo piece which was supposed to be ironic if you didn't catch that,
i.e. it was a polemic against ideas of intellectual property.

        Also copyright never extends past 1908, I know that for a fact.

re:18  Really?  I'll have to go read it again.  I did sort of skim through it.
Thanks.

This response has been erased.

        Yeah the Mondo piece was satire 1) check out the smiley at the
end 2) If you read closely it's just word salad technobable, no one
will agree to hook their scanner up to the net 3)  The response piece
afterwars (next column) is total satire by the writing style.  Mondo
2k with it's sampling asthetic is NOT the place to lok for a defense
of intellectual property.

I had not been quite familiar with the magazine, and once I read the rest of
the page after the article, I felt really stupid for not noticing the
obvious.  I think that when I skimmed it previously, I was at work, or getting
ready to fall asleep, and in either case, not in a fully cognitive state.
 Apologies for my slow-wittedness.  :)

        Hey no problem... at least you reread it, most people would not
go to the trouble to rearead something and respond with such honesty.

        I've tried running a test stack using a friends PowerMac and
it didn't work.  Not only would it not display the color pictures,
it didn't display any pictures at all.  When we looked with res edit
the pictures were there as resources.  I used the color tools to
import them into hypercard.  Any help would appreciated!

        I got the stack to work turns out I didn't have the memory
partition of the hypercard player set large enough using get info
dooooh.

do you have your resources set to be purgeable?  do this in the resedit
resource info window.  it will improve memory usage in your stack.

        Pugeable?  Once I open the stack in res edit where do I find
that command?  Also what does it mean?

Open the stack, then select the individual resource (e.g. WIND id 512) and
use the Get Resource Info menu command.  There are a bunch of checkboxes
for different attributes, including purgeable.  If a resource is purgeable, 
then the machine will discard it from RAM if it needs the space, and just 
reload it if it needs it again.  It just allows the system more memory usage
options, potentially speeding the application.

        Hmmm, thanks I'll give that a try.

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