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On 1 May, 2013, at 10:50 pm, Gordon Henderson wrote:
I don't remember it being "network aware", but it may have been - Early Apple Mac thing.
It really was. From version 2.0 at the latest it had high-level support for network inter-process communication, using the High-Level AppleEvents framework, built on top of the Open Scripting Architecture, built on top of the (low-level) AppleEvents framework. Fantastically advanced, really easy to use. Think sockets plus D-bus, but easier and scripted in English sentences like:
tell the application "HyperCard" on machine "otherMac" to get the selected text field
(The value will be returned in implicit global variable "it". The language is HyperTalk)
I implemented single-handed a school library system with distributed HyperCard processing of catalogue, loans/returns/reminders/fines, and borrowers, each on a separate Mac, all communicating asynchronously, producing gorgeous daily reports, with a really easy-to-learn, easy-to- use GUI.
HyperCard was a ground-breaker and trend-setter in so many ways: external third-party binary plugins for extended functionality, whitespace-significant auto-formatting, OOP(-ish), integrated GUI authoring and scripting, transparent database integration to the point where naive users didn't even realise it was a database, network IPC, hypertext (in its widest sense) with proper bi-directional hyperlinks, REPL interaction (OK, that wasn't new), 4GL, amazing animation/music/ speech/multimedia support, GUI prototyping and RAD, and I've probably missed out something really important and cool... Only the Amiga had anything close at the time.
Apart from the WWW, its never-quite-as-good inheritors include: Visual Basic and its legion of imitators, AuthorWare, Director/Lingo, Toolbook (very close), SuperCard (alright, SC *was* better), plus every 4GL/GUI/DB RAD IDE since 1985. Oracle licensed version 1 for a time as Oracle Card.
One day, Apple decided to take HyperCard off the market. I will never depend on proprietary software again. -- Phil Hudson http://hudson-it.no-ip.biz @UWascalWabbit PGP/GnuPG ID: 0x887DCA63 -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq