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Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

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Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#81

Post by jchw »

tombert wrote: post #72
jchw wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Adobe Animate? Granted, I haven’t actually tried, but my understanding is that it is like Flash but targeting the modern web.

I haven't tried it, though if I recall they've greatly started de-emphasizing the coding aspect of it. Even still, I don't believe I can export directly to anything supported nowadays, right? Does the HTML5 exporter work?

It seems to still support ActionScript 3, though again, not personally experienced. Still, this would suggest you can export an existing Flash project to HTML5: https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/how-to/create-publish-html5-...

edit: Looking more closely, I do now see that you have to manually convert the AS3 when exporting to HTML5. That’s a bummer.

Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#82

Post by debo_ »

mpweiher wrote: post #67
mumblemumble wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that TFA said it well, if brusquely: > And if you think that XCode, Python, Processing, or the shit soup of HTML/Javascript/CSS are any kind of substitute for HyperCard, then read this post again. The thing that made HyperCard great was that it wasn't very capable. Which made it approachable.

Sure, Xcode today isn't a substitute. But Xcode is a large step back from what NeXTstep had, at least when it comes to this kind of capability. The standalone Interface Builder had palettes, which you could fill with custom objects. There were third party palettes that allowed non-programmers to click together and configure custom applications for specific domains. There were palettes that extended the whole shebang…

I hope that "extended the whole shebang with scripting languages..." was an intentional pun.

Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#83

Post by tombert »

phailhaus wrote: post #77
tombert wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually have a license to Construct as well, and like GameMaker it's fun and I do like it (though I think I actually like GameMaker a bit more). I haven't used it in like 6 years, so my knowledge is fairly out of date, but if I remember correctly, it's kind of lacking my favorite feature from Flash: the ability to use a professional-grade animation tool directly within the program . No messing with exporting sprit…

Looks like Construct has an Animations Editor too :) I get where you're coming from though, Flash was directly responsible for that golden age of creativity, because it was so accessible that literally children were making cool things with it. https://www.construct.net/en/make-games/manuals/construct-3/...

I knew you could tweak imported animations and stuff, but it didn't hold a candle to Flash's stuff, since Flash was an "animation-first" program.

Maybe I need to play with Construct again though, it's probably improved substantially in six years.

Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#84

Post by jborichevskiy »

betamaxthetape wrote: post #68

I've mentioned this several times on HN before, but I maintain a collection [1] of over 3,500 HyperCard stacks hosted by the Internet Archive. The great thing about modern technology is they're all emulated in-browser - just select the one you want and press start. You've got silly little animations[2], sound samplers[3], choose-your-own adventure stories[4], reference guides[5] and teaching materials[6]. But there's…

What a wonderful collection. Thank you!

Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#85

Post by protomyth »

jchw wrote: post #62
tombert wrote: post #38

Obviously not exactly the same, but a lot of the magic here is something I felt with Macromedia Flash MX back in the day. I had been (at the time) unsuccessful getting a C++ with OpenGL project working, but when I had my pirated copy of Flash, I was very quickly able to make interactive stuff. I never made anything even close to "commercial-ready", but I had a lot of fun doing it. It felt like within a day or two, yo…

What about Adobe Animate? Granted, I haven’t actually tried, but my understanding is that it is like Flash but targeting the modern web.

What about Adobe Animate?

"Get Animate as part of Adobe Creative Cloud for just US$20.99/mo." from https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html

It would be a hard thing to ask various professions that developed content using HyperCard to fork over the money.

Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#87

Post by tombert »

jchw wrote: post #81
tombert wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried it, though if I recall they've greatly started de-emphasizing the coding aspect of it. Even still, I don't believe I can export directly to anything supported nowadays, right? Does the HTML5 exporter work?

It seems to still support ActionScript 3, though again, not personally experienced. Still, this would suggest you can export an existing Flash project to HTML5: https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/how-to/create-publish-html5-... edit: Looking more closely, I do now see that you have to manually convert the AS3 when exporting to HTML5. That’s a bummer.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I remember hearing that you couldn't magically export your AS3 into HTML5 like you can with something like GameMaker.

Somewhat ironically, due to something like Ruffle, exporting to an SWF like before might actually be a viable option again, since you'd get all the nice sandboxing of modern browsers while having pretty-ok flash compatibility.

Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#89

Post by tombert »

protomyth wrote: post #85
jchw wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Adobe Animate? Granted, I haven’t actually tried, but my understanding is that it is like Flash but targeting the modern web.

What about Adobe Animate? "Get Animate as part of Adobe Creative Cloud for just US$20.99/mo." from https://www.adobe.com/products/animate.html It would be a hard thing to ask various professions that developed content using HyperCard to fork over the money.

That's why I haven't actually tried Animate yet. I eventually bought a legitimate copy of Flash 8, and paid for the upgrade licenses all the way up to CS6, but when they changed the pricing model to be subscription based I pretty much said "screw this" and jumped ship.

Re: Why Hypercard had to die (2011)

#90

Post by GeekyBear »

>Apple never again brought to market anything resembling HyperCard

I would argue that Swift Playgrounds also attempts to make software creation simple enough for anyone, but with a real programming language instead of a scripting language.

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