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Are you doing a Comic-Book-Guy impersonation?
Bill Atkinson has died
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Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#82For anyone (like me) wondering who this guy was, he was a prominent UI guy at Apple back in the day. According to Wikipedia he created the menu bar, QuickDraw, and HyperCard. For whomever submits stories like this, please say who the person was. Very few people are so famous that everyone in tech knows who they were, and Mr. Atkinson was not one of them. I've heard of his accomplishments, but never the man himself.
Adding a bit more context: The World Wide Web arguably exists because of HyperCard. The idea that information can be hyperlinked together.
Atkinson was a brilliant engineer. As critical to the launch of A Macintosh as anyone — efficient rendering of regions, overlapping windows, etc.
And last but not least, Mac Paint. Every computer painting program in existence owes Atkinson a nod.
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not doubting that, but what is the substantive difference here? Does the fact that there is a screen buffer on the Mac facilitate clipping that is otherwise not possible on the Alto?
It allows the Mac to use far less RAM to display overlapping windows, and doesn't require any extra hardware. Individual regions are refreshed independently of the rest of the screen, with occlusion, updates, and clipping managed automatically,
Yeah, it seems like the hard part of this problem isn't merely coming up with a solution that technically is correct, but one that also is efficient enough to be actually useful. Throwing specialized or more expensive hardware at something is a valid approach for problems like this, but all else being equal, having a lower hardware requirement is better.
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s ironic that the next graphical programming environment similar to Hypercard was probably Flash - and it obviously died too. What actually are the best successors now, at least for authoring generic apps for the open web? (Other than vibe coding things)
I think that would be Decker ( https://internet-janitor.itch.io/decker ). Not my project but I found it some time ago when I searched for Hypercard successors. The neat thing is that it works in the browser.
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?
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#85In 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…
Mr. Atkinson's passing was sad enough without thinking about this.
(More seriously: I can still recall using ResEdit to hack a custom FONT resource into a HyperCard stack, then using string manipulation in a text field to create tiled graphics. This performed much better than button icons or any other approach I could find. And then it stopped working in System 7.)
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#86From Walter Isaacson's _Steve Jobs_: > One of Bill Atkinson’s amazing feats (which we are so accustomed to nowadays that we rarely marvel at it) was to allow the windows on a screen to overlap so that the “top” one clipped into the ones “below” it. Atkinson made it possible to move these windows around, just like shuffling papers on a desk, with those below becoming visible or hidden as you moved the top ones. Of cou…
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…
What is the dark lining? Do you think Atkinson did not feel totally satisfied with his labour?
And I don't think anyone said that that's the only way to be
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#87I 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?
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that would be Decker ( https://internet-janitor.itch.io/decker ). Not my project but I found it some time ago when I searched for Hypercard successors. The neat thing is that it works in the browser.
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 into more detail if you like.
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#89Rest in peace.
Re: Bill Atkinson has died
#90[flagged]
Are you doing a Comic-Book-Guy impersonation?
No, just someone who isn't steeped in surveillance culture. My obtuseness is just a direct response to the obtuseness of the surveillance industry demanding "consent" when I'm trying to read about someone's death. I have also entered throwaway nyms for the online streams of family funerals that have tried to bundle abusive legal terms. What's socially gauche here is letting a moment of mourning turn into leverage for the surveillance industry.