Why Hypercard Had to Die
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Why Hypercard Had to Die
1–10 of 142 posts
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#2Actually has a really good example (a calculator) to show how HyperCard could be used.
HyperCard was a big part of my junior high years. It could even be extended, e.g. there was one add-on that allowed color graphics to be displayed and I learned to make some simple games that way.
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#3Visual Basic played a similar role for me many years ago. I've moved on since, but at the time it was exactly what I needed. The value of a WYSIWYG GUI editor and a simple event system to a budding developer can't be overstated.
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#4FTA: "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."
I always hope in the back of my mind that someday there will be a way to create a web interface as easily as you could in Hypercard.
I miss it so much.
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#5Has this guy played with Interfave Builder lately? I fail to see his point. Apple has poured tons of resources into making development for its devices simpler, and that's part of the reason you have so many amateur apps on the App Store.
Jobs understood the division of responsibility between Apple, with its extremely limited resources, and its developer community. What wasn't core to selling computers was cut. We are talking about a company that was 90 days from bankruptcy when he took over. I think he made a good decision.
If somebody has wanted to do a proper visual programming environment in the vein of HyperCard for the Mac, what in the last 13 years has stopped them? It wasn't Jobs.
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#6FTA: "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." I always hope in the back of my mind that someday there will be a way to create a web interface as easily as you could in Hypercard. I miss it so much.
No such luck. The Web architecture inherently sucks:
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#7Sigh. Maybe instead of ranting at your "typical software engineer", the author should spend a moment to consider that maybe it "could be built again" - but it never has.
So the question then turns to, why has it never been built? Is it maybe because Hypercard (and other visual systems) become entirely unmaintainable once we get to large-scale systems? And maybe it is because most people don't want a trivialized programming environment? They either want a full system, or just a product?
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#8Has this guy played with Interfave Builder lately? I fail to see his point. Apple has poured tons of resources into making development for its devices simpler, and that's part of the reason you have so many amateur apps on the App Store. Jobs understood the division of responsibility between Apple, with its extremely limited resources, and its developer community. What wasn't core to selling computers was cut. We are…
> Apple has poured tons of resources into making development for its devices simpler...
"Simple" and "pleasant" are different things. Digging a trench deep enough to bury a car is "simple."
> Has this guy played with Interface Builder lately?
Yes, actually I have played with it.
It makes me want to vomit. The whole NextStep stack does, in fact. Because I have used OpenGenera. And HyperCard.
> if somebody has wanted to do a proper visual programming environment in the vein of HyperCard, what in the last 13 years has stopped them?
Here's a example from an unrelated field. The Kalashnikov rifle is more than half a century old. Why has nothing replaced it as the world's most popular weapon of war?
Often, complexity and full-featuredness is precisely what people don't want.
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#9FTA: "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." I always hope in the back of my mind that someday there will be a way to create a web interface as easily as you could in Hypercard. I miss it so much.
No such luck. The Web architecture inherently sucks: http://philip.greenspun.com/research/internet-haters
Take that article with a large grain of salt. Much of it has been proven wrong by now. ("HTML is where the Web starts and probably where it will end.")
Re: Why Hypercard Had to Die
#10FTA: "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." I always hope in the back of my mind that someday there will be a way to create a web interface as easily as you could in Hypercard. I miss it so much.
No such luck. The Web architecture inherently sucks: http://philip.greenspun.com/research/internet-haters
The sad part is that it that it hasn't fundamentally changed. Sure, there are layers upon layers of redundant redundancies to smooth out issues, but they haven't really been fixed.