HyperTalk

[galte...@gmail.com]

Just out of curiosity, how much of HyperTalk has been implemented? By the tests, it looks like a lot.

Any new features written or planned?

[Ben Fisher]

---- On Sun, 25 Mar 2018 20:49:02 -0700 <galte...@gmail.com> wrote ----

> Just out of curiosity, how much of HyperTalk has been implemented? By the tests, it looks like a lot.
>
> Any new features written or planned?
>

Yes, I think I've covered a fair amount of the language. In the Help menu, there's a Reference page that's pretty thorough about what is present and missing. I'll soon be filling in the gaps, finishing a few more useful constructs like "on openCard", etc.

I'll soon add a few interesting features, like dynamically creating elements, which I don't think HyperCard could do, at least on the versions I used.

Some of the missing syntax is due to my own editorializing; I'm not rushing to support if/then statements on one line, or function calls with no parens, because to my eyes the code is less readable.

If donation goals are reached, I'll add significant features like playing and editing MIDI music.

Question for the group: what do we think about syntax for arrays or maps? Would this feel too foreign?

[galte...@gmail.com]

+1000 to dynamic creation.

Absolutely love the idea of arrays and maps. Funny story, I was building an RPG stack with a large world map, and rendering just wasn't fast. Then one day I learned about hashtables/maps, I went home and immediately came up with an approximation in HyperTalk, rendering became nearly instantaneous. I'm guessing folks will need them pretty soon into their scripting experience.

Same for modern iterators, and all the things we now consider basics. If you see a chance, add them. You've got the knack for the language, I don't think anyone here would be offended if it doubled/tripled in the count of things it could do.