Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bill Atkinson has died

daringfireball.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 295 posts

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#161

Post by DonHopkins »

gdubs wrote: post #146
btilly wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that information can be hyperlinked together predated HyperCard by decades. It goes back to https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m... , which was written in 1945. The same essay also has the fundamental ideas for a citation index. This gave rise both to the Science Citation Index and to various hypertext systems. For example the famous 1968 presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y…

I'm not claiming the idea didn't exist but Atkinson's HyperCard turned it into a viable product and the creators of the web credited him for their inspiration.

It's not just the links, more importantly it had:

  on mouseDown
    answer "HyperTalk!" with "OK"
  end mouseDown

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#162

Post by WillAdams »

RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #88
WillAdams wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This gets mentioned pretty much every time HyperCard is --- but I can't see that anyone has done anything with it. Why use it rather than Livecode (aside from the licensing of the latter) or Hypernext Studio?

Some programs, games, and zines made with Decker: https://itch.io/games/tag-decker Unlike LiveCode (or so far as I am aware HyperNext), Decker is free and open-source: https://github.com/JohnEarnest/Decker HyperNext doesn't appear to be actively developed; the most recent updates I see are from last year, and it can't be used on modern computers. Decker's most recent release was yesterday morning. I'd be happy to go…

Livecode used to be opensource, which made me want to use it, but that window closed.

I guess I want a Flash replacement....

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#163

Post by [deleted] »

fingerlocks wrote: post #87
davisr wrote: post #65

I first met Bill over video-chat during 2020 and we got to know each other a bit. He later sent me a gift that changed my life. We hadn't talked for the past couple years, but I know he experienced "death" before and was as psychologically prepared as anyone could be. I have no doubt that he handled the biggest trip of his life with grace. We didn't always see eye-to-eye when it came to software, but we did share a m…

Don’t leave us hanging. What was the gift?

[deleted]

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#164

Post by analog31 »

jonstewart wrote: post #137

I was just musing to a young team member the other day that I think OOP comes easy to me because I learned HyperCard (v1.2 on System 6 on an SE) at a young age. RIP.

This was my experience too. My mom had a subscription to Byte Magazine, and I remember trying to read the articles on OOP when they came out. It was utterly opaque to me. When I started using HyperCard, the light bulb turned on.

I think a subtle factor is that when learning HC (or Visual Basic, or LabVIEW), you started using objects before you learned how to create them. All of these packages came with lots of pre-written objects that were easy to use. In the case of VB, you had to buy a special version if you wanted to create your own objects, and very few people did.

I think when teaching newer languages like Python, this is done as a matter of course. For instance if you show someone how to calculate a function and graph it, you're probably using objects from something like Matplotlib, before being shown how to create your own. And once again, among casual programmers, relatively few people define their own classes.

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#165

Post by gxs »

dang wrote: post #104
gxs wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have to say that I mused at the time about a wealthy, retired, engineer who throws money at high end photo gear and suddenly thinks they're a photographer I think this says more about you than it does about him

Please don't cross into personal attack. The cost outweighs any benefit. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Ugh I hate that you’re almost always right

I was about to argue but then I saw this part

> The cost outweighs any benefit.

And this is absolutely true - there is a benefit but it doesn’t mean it’s worth it

Either way my bad, I should have elaborated and been more gentle instead of just that quip

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#166

Post by gxs »

brulard wrote: post #160
spiralcoaster wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absolutely true and I don't understand why you're being downvoted. Especially in the context of this man just recently dying, there's someone throwing in their elitist opinion about photographers and how photography SHOULD be done, and apparently Bill was doing it wrong.

He said "at the time". If I say "I thought X at the time" it implies I have reconsidered since. Your parents comment was unnecessarily condescending

It’s just the timing and how he said it, especially considering the tone of the message overall

But the irony isn’t lost on me that I myself shouldn’t have been so mean about it

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#167

Post by melling »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #100
melling wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pancreatic cancer. Still quite deadly. It has been 17 years since Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture. https://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo?si=TlgWzgQ7bD3Usvu3

Steve also, correct? Wonder if it has anything to do with the chemical dumping in silicon valley.

There were a lot of Superfund sites in Silicon Valley.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/lens/the-superfund-sites-...

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#169

Post by bombcar »

dan-robertson wrote: post #95
matthewn wrote: post #13

In an alternate timeline, HyperCard was not allowed to wither and die, but instead continued to mature, embraced the web, and inspired an entire genre of software-creating software. In this timeline, people shape their computing experiences as easily as one might sculpt a piece of clay, creating personal apps that make perfect sense to them and fit like a glove; computing devices actually become (for everyone, not ju…

Not sure that sculpting clay is the best analogy. Lots of sculpting is hard, as is turning clay, especially if you want to successfully fire the result. Maybe it is an accurate analogy, but people may understand the difficulty differently.

Hypercard is more like Lego - you can simply buy completed sets (use other's hypercard programs) - or you can put together things according to instructions - but you can always take them apart and change them, and eventually build your own.

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#170

Post by asveikau »

duskwuff wrote: post #136
jajko wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty awesome story, but also with a bit of dark lining. Of course any owner, and triple that for Jobs, loves over-competent guys who work themselves to the death, here almost literally. But that's not a recipe for personal happiness for most people, and most of us would not end up contributing revolutionary improvements even if done so. World needs awesome workers, and we also need ie awesome parents or just happy…

That's not quite how I read the story. Jobs didn't ask Atkinson if he remembered regions - Atkinson brought it up.

It's also a joke, and a pretty good one at that. Shows a sense of humor.
Post reply on HN