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From ut-ngp!osmigo Sun Nov 29 01:02:09 CST 1987
Article 10218 of comp.sys.mac:
Path: ut-ngp!osmigo
>From: osmigo@ut-ngp.UUCP (Ron Morgan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Re: MacUser Hypercard coverage (now Hypercard user interface)
Message-ID: <6954@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: 29 Nov 87 06:58:42 GMT
References: <34647@sun.uucp> <870048@hpcilzb.HP.COM>
Reply-To: osmigo@ngp.UUCP (CP^ZAZPPPYPYXU	zQYhBYPYoZO)
Organization: Speech Communication UT Austin
Lines: 54

I have the following comments, mostly negative, to make about Hypercard,
for what it's worth. 

1. I agree with the MacUser author that it's being foisted upon the market
   without passing the litmus test of retail competition. One can only
   speculate how far Hypercard would get if it were quietly slipped onto
   retail shelves for $295.00.

2. Its consumption of bytes is horrifying, both in the RAM and on the disk.
   A full-blown, heavy-duty Hyperperson (what a concept, eh?) would need at
   least 2 megs of RAM and a 20 meg hard disk just to stay alive. I resent
   the way this kind of thing is vogue these days, and find it hard to 
   believe that it's not being done deliberately, to stimulate sales of
   higher-capacity systems, as well as to arbitrarily define the market in
   ways of questionable benefit to the consumers, e.g., Hypercard making
   DA's obsolete within a year or two.  	

3. Hypertalk is somewhat overrated. True, it's "easier" than C or Pascal, but
   in no sense of the word is it a "programming language" in the first place.
   MacUser/World often tend to glamorize new software with lots of tinsel-
   and-glitter foofooraw. You may recall the front-cover spotlighting of
   MacSpin, yet how many people are using it? Just a couple of months ago,
   right on the front cover: "Visual Interactive Programming: The Wave of the
   Future." Those guys have had more "waves of the future" than Jeanne Dixon.
   I'll change my mind when somebody writes a flight simulator in Hypertalk.

   Furthermore, I doubt that the "ease" of learning/using Hypertalk (and it's
   no mean feat to do so, relying solely on the HELP card or the manual, 
   neither of which addresses the subject in depth) will be that big an 
   advantage for the business user. Most professional businessmen I know
   are far, far too busy to learn a language and twiddle away their time
   writing "button programs." They just want to go click-click and get
   their Cash Flow Indexes. 

   That is, if they COULD learn it. I've known a number of business computer
   consultants to laugh with me over lunch, chortling about how they charged
   some high-priced executive $25 an hour for teaching him how to drag an icon.

4. In my opinion, Hypercard's most salient innovation is its way of getting
   around, but even that's not special. Just click on a box for the next
   subject. It's not all that different from the Guidance DA on Pagemaker 2.0.
   It's been suggested that Hypercard is really here to pervade the market in
   preparation for the introduction of CD's, for which it would be ideally
   suited. However, in presenting Hypercard as a magical, omnipotent, do-
   everything application that will replace everything but the kitchen sink,
   Apple may be setting an otherwise "nice" application up for failure. No 
   Hypercard application is going to even come close to surpassing its stand-
   alone software equivalent, and what with Finder-substitute DA's such as
   DiskTools II and DiskTop that let you flick from one application to the
   next in seconds, I wonder if Atkinson, having blown 3 precious years on
   this monstrosity, is trying to become the Steve Jobs of programming. 

Ron Morgan

"Who are you?"

"We're computerists."

"AAAUUGGGHHH!!!"
    
-- 
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      osmigo@ut-ngp.UUCP
ARPA: osmigo@ngp.utexas.edu


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