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ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

vipercard.net

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Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#11

Post by Torwald »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #2

I wonder how much material design is influenced by Hypercard. I know the web was partially inspired but it looks like with material design the language is sort of extended. Or maybe it was all integrated into the design language for the web.

I had an equivalent multimedia authoring system on the Amiga, called Hyperbook. http://obligement.free.fr/articles/hyperbook_beta.php

It was very much influenced by HyperCard, obviously. They didn't try to hide it, to the contrary, so much so that they hacked the UI-controls to make them more "Macintoshis" I guess.

Except it came in colors. The multimedia aspect of the Amiga, remember?

Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#12

Post by jaysonelliot »

Karunamon wrote: post #3
zitterbewegung wrote: post #2

I wonder how much material design is influenced by Hypercard. I know the web was partially inspired but it looks like with material design the language is sort of extended. Or maybe it was all integrated into the design language for the web.

What I find amazing is that early B&W GUIs were more usable than modern material design. Most takes on Material that I’ve seen take poor use of screen real-estate, poor conveyance, and distracting/hard-to-read color choices to an art form.

I've been very interested lately in the idea of monochromatic interfaces.

Aside from being easier on the eyes (especially an amber or red interface), they force UI designers to make careful choices, and potentially result in a cleaner, more useable interface.

It's not a project for me yet, just a series of notes and concepts, but I'd like to turn it into a proof of concept at the very least.

Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#14

Post by kbutler »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #12
Karunamon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find amazing is that early B&W GUIs were more usable than modern material design. Most takes on Material that I’ve seen take poor use of screen real-estate, poor conveyance, and distracting/hard-to-read color choices to an art form.

I've been very interested lately in the idea of monochromatic interfaces. Aside from being easier on the eyes (especially an amber or red interface), they force UI designers to make careful choices, and potentially result in a cleaner, more useable interface. It's not a project for me yet, just a series of notes and concepts, but I'd like to turn it into a proof of concept at the very least.

Having made extensive use of amber and green and b&w monitors, I much prefer full color.

Though I dislike the recent low-contrast efforts. Keep high contrast, reduce brightness as desired for your environment.

Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#15

Post by shaunxcode »

notthegov wrote: post #8

I used to make Hypercard stacks back in 7th grade when I was learning from Quantum Link (Q-Link) hackers like Mobeius from the Pan-American Information Network (#hellonearth). And AOL hackers and soical engineers like HappyHardcore, creator of AOL4Free & the Master Blaster, the famous Da Chronic, creator of AOHell and KT (Shameer) who first taught me social engineering in 1995- http://www.stepbystep.com/America-Onlin…

I love hacker news right now. Been a long time since I felt "home".

Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#16

Post by dangoor »

This is cool, but I wonder if anyone has made a modern, browser-based variation of HyperCard? Something with a model akin to HyperCard's but exporting stacks in a form that can be easily put onto a page.

There's Amber Smalltalk, but that's more powerful and the simplicity of HyperCard is part of its charm.

Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#18

Post by wtallis »

dman wrote: post #7
Karunamon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find amazing is that early B&W GUIs were more usable than modern material design. Most takes on Material that I’ve seen take poor use of screen real-estate, poor conveyance, and distracting/hard-to-read color choices to an art form.

In case some UX / HCI experts read this thread, are there any credible studies of information density in user interfaces plotted over time?

I'm not aware of any systematic analysis. However, my expectations are that we would see relatively constant information density until about a decade ago. The simultaneous increase in available pixels and increase in prevalence of touchscreens has made it possible and in some cases desirable to drastically reduce information density without rendering interfaces immediately unusable. The problem is that touchscreen-oriented design is infecting non-touchscreen software.

Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#19

Post by mikekchar »

kbutler wrote: post #14
jaysonelliot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been very interested lately in the idea of monochromatic interfaces. Aside from being easier on the eyes (especially an amber or red interface), they force UI designers to make careful choices, and potentially result in a cleaner, more useable interface. It's not a project for me yet, just a series of notes and concepts, but I'd like to turn it into a proof of concept at the very least.

Having made extensive use of amber and green and b&w monitors, I much prefer full color. Though I dislike the recent low-contrast efforts. Keep high contrast, reduce brightness as desired for your environment.

I totally agree with this. I've spent hours and hours selecting colour palettes that give high contrast (I work on 16 colour terminals because more than 16 colours makes it really difficult to guarantee good contrast in all situations).

Having said that, it's hard to beat black on white for contrast ;-) However, I think one of the reasons people like the monochromatic themes (especially white on black) is the same -- they want high contrast with low brightness. By having the background black, they guarantee a low brightness. And when white is too bright, they go for amber.

I find that by doing the reverse (black on white) and setting my brightness very low (I often go as low at 7%, but more normally 11% back light) I have a very comfortable display with a lot more options. It's really funny, though, because when I have to run software that doesn't follow my colour themes, the computer almost looks like it's turned off. If I'm playing a game, I have to crank up the brightness to 70% or 80% in the same lighting conditions.

Re: ViperCard – An open source re-creation and re-imagination of HyperCard

#20

Post by mikekchar »

If I remember correctly, the only reason Ward Cunningham invented the wiki is because HyperCard was discontinued. He was apparently writing CRC cards and storing them in HyperCard (which seems like a completely reasonable thing to do...) He wanted something that was as convenient for doing that kind of thing.
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