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Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

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Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#71

Post by NetMageSCW »

whartung wrote: post #38
mbreese wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s more that I haven’t really seen many examples of Access or FileMaker applications in the wild for a while. Most of these were CRUD apps that were able to be moved to the web. But that doesn’t mean that typical users are any more capable of navigating hosting setups for modern CRUD web apps. The FileMaker example I saw was really for a legacy shop that was primarily used for existing applications. Nothing new was…

Well thats the crux. While the display may seem simple (a grid, a few controls), a Web UI CRUD app, while routine today, is NOT simple. While it's been 20+ years since I dealt with either, you can create table, get a navigable (and perhaps other features), and a CRUD detail screen in just a few minutes of drag and drop. And it's right there, on your machine, no cognitive load about, well, anything, and ready to go. A…

Access is included with Microsoft 365, even personal, but there is no web version.

Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#72

Post by jnwatson »

oidar wrote: post #52
pjmlp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why past tense, Filemaker and Access are still being sold. A solution would probably be Airtable.

FileMaker is no longer affordable. A single seat is around $500.

Suggested retail price for Filemaker when it was originally released in 1985 for Macintosh was $195. That's about $600 these days.

It is about as expensive as it ever was.

Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#74

Post by pjmlp »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #71
whartung wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well thats the crux. While the display may seem simple (a grid, a few controls), a Web UI CRUD app, while routine today, is NOT simple. While it's been 20+ years since I dealt with either, you can create table, get a navigable (and perhaps other features), and a CRUD detail screen in just a few minutes of drag and drop. And it's right there, on your machine, no cognitive load about, well, anything, and ready to go. A…

Access is included with Microsoft 365, even personal, but there is no web version.

Microsoft rather pushes PowerApps for the same use cases, when targeting the web.

Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#75

Post by simondotau »

jnwatson wrote: post #72
oidar wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FileMaker is no longer affordable. A single seat is around $500.

Suggested retail price for Filemaker when it was originally released in 1985 for Macintosh was $195. That's about $600 these days. It is about as expensive as it ever was.

Which is fair, if FileMaker existed in a vacuum. The inflation-adjusted cost of software and hardware has consistently trended downwards over the past 40 years.

Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#77

Post by josters »

gnodar wrote: post #68
D-Coder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using LiveCode for a dozen personal applications (and for just the fun of coding; I'm a retired s/w engineer). It's no longer free, but I started with HyperCard and LiveCode is an excellent replacement, at least for me.

The OpenXTalk community is keeping the open source version alive. https://www.openxtalk.org/

Thanks for letting me know, maybe I need to get back into it. I always enjoyed the speed with which I could prototype new ideas and even get them installed on a phone or tablet.

Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#78

Post by pjmlp »

simondotau wrote: post #75
jnwatson wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggested retail price for Filemaker when it was originally released in 1985 for Macintosh was $195. That's about $600 these days. It is about as expensive as it ever was.

Which is fair, if FileMaker existed in a vacuum. The inflation-adjusted cost of software and hardware has consistently trended downwards over the past 40 years.

As someone that pays for commercial software, only if you are talking about race to the bottom on mobile stores.

A proper PC or Apple device, proper being the keyword, not throwaway gear under 500 €, is as expensive as always, when buying hardware with 5 to 10 years expected lifetime in a professional setting.

Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#79

Post by torginus »

zeroq wrote: post #15

I'm afraid that HyperCard is too old for broader audience to be able to grasp how extraordinary experience it was providing. As a 6-7yo I had a collection of English words, stored with my own definitions and pronunciations, using basic building blocks, and it was as easy and intuitive as writing these words in my notebook. People used the same building primitives to make real games or stuff like accounting applicatio…

I am not quite the right age for hypercard as well, but I did have my chances to interact with a variety of game making tools aimed at kids that were amazing for creating event-driven logic. Likewise in the professional world, tools aimed at business professionals (like MS Access), that kinda were abandoned - and there used to be a whole spectrum of stuff that connected WYSIWIG editors and simple languages to various levels of programming tools.

The demand for this was huge.

Re: Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS

#80

Post by mike_hearn »

mbreese wrote: post #21

Is there a place these days for interfaces like this? I’m thinking about self contained applications like HyperCard stacks, but also FileMaker databases or even Access databases where we had interfaces linked to a database all as a self contained application. These tools with scripting languages powered a ton of small business applications. I know a lab I worked with was still using FileMaker databases up until a few…

Sure. Oracle APEX is popular. You never hear about it on HN because the target user base for low code stuff doesn't overlap with the HN set much, but it's huge.

https://blogs.oracle.com/apex/organizations-ww-chose-apex

In that IDC survey it's the most popular low code product, over 2 million apps and half a million developers.

There's a SaaS version at apex.oracle.com with a free tier if you want to try it, and you can self-host it as well.

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