HC sessions at WWDC
Stewart Walker
Some of us who can't get to the developers conference this week
are eager for any tidbits that might come from the two sessions on
HyperCard, including the Internet support that the conference
info indicated will be in 3.0.
Peter Fleck
In article <4n9v7n$a...@sol.sun.csd.unb.ca>, Stewart Walker
<swa...@mta.ca> wrote:
If you have web access, check <http://www.zdnet.com/macweek/wwdc96/>.
They're running daily reports on the conference.
--
Peter Fleck
Keeper of the HyperCard FAQ
fl...@astro.spa.umn.edu
Get the FAQ by e-mail request with <HC FAQ> for subject.
Conrad Weiler
> Date: Thu May 16 21:30:46 1996
From: jon...@NETCOM.COM (Jon Pugh)
Subject: Hypercard 3.0 at WWDC
To: HYPE...@msu.edu (Multiple recipients of list HYPERCRD)
Reply-To: HYPE...@msu.edu (Hypercard Discussion List)
So, it's finally announced. Hypercard 3.0 is official and able to run
demos. Kevin Calhoun showed it off at the WWDC today in a session titled,
Hypercard 3.0, the Phoenix Rises. He apologized for the title and pointed
out that the mythical phoenix unfortunately also dies every 7,000 years.
If it could only last that long. ;)
The key to the future of Hypercard is QuickTime 3.0. The QT folks were
looking at adding a control language to QuickTime for what is now titled
QTML (QuickTime Media Layer) and decided that Hypertalk was just what they
wanted, so they are integrating that into QT, and consequently redoing
Hypercard on top of this interactive QT.
What this means is that every Hypercard stack is a movie and can be played
by ANY existing movie player, including (and demoed) MoviePlayer,
WordPerfect, Netscape and OpenDoc's movie part.
It also means that full integrated color is finally here with complete
painting tools and full importing, as well as cross platform playback,
since players already exist for all three versions of Windows.
In addition, since they are making new media handlers, they are adding ones
which can read media off the net, which makes it really easy to run your
stacks in Netscape or CyberDog over the net since they start working the
moment you download the first frame and they can reference content on
multiple servers. In addition, you can embed any QT content anywhere in
Hypercard, so you can have QTVR, regular movies and sounds integrated right
into your stacks.
Basically, this puts Hypercard more firmly into the multimedia authoring
realm, in addition to making it even easier to make insanely cool
interactive movies.
There's lots more, but the gist is that they are talking about delivering
QT 3 and HC 3 in the spring of 97, and that's supposed to be heavily padded
so that it could be a bit sooner. <
Sounds interesting.
Conrad
--
Tidewater, Oregon
cwe...@orednet.org
MKlink
<<Sounds interesting.>>
I'd say it sounds absolutely fabulous!!!!
Authoring programs necessarily become prisoners of their own pasts -
having to accommodate architectures that were extraordinarily clever and
efficient given the environments for which they were originally designed.
But those architectures have become impediments as hardware and system
software have develped - I'm thinking of things like HC's 1 bit and SC's 8
bit architecture, and Director's score metaphor with all the resulting
peculiarities of convoluted lingo and puppeting that you have to go thru
in order to provide sophisticated interactivity) . Add-ons, hacks, etc.
have helped these programs adjust to changing circumstances, but
eventually what's needed is a new foundation - It is great to see that
this is being done with HyperCard. This is the sort of bold step that we
used to associate with Apple - but the beautiful thing is that Apple has
also learned not to throw the baby out with the bath water. We'll still be
using HyperTalk - arguably the easiest-to-use, most successful, and
influential scripting language ever invented.
And what a brilliant solution to the problem making HC xPlatform and
internet savvy!
Bravo Apple!
Mark Klink
Ben Lawson
In article <4nhsug$i...@ednet1.orednet.org>, cwe...@ednet1.osl.or.gov
(Conrad Weiler) wrote:
>So, it's finally announced. Hypercard 3.0 is official and able to run demos.
>What this means is that every Hypercard stack is a movie and can be played
>by ANY existing movie player, including (and demoed) MoviePlayer,
>WordPerfect, Netscape and OpenDoc's movie part.
<tonnes of other great stuff deleted>
This is STUNNINGLY GREAT news! When I regain conciousness I'll decide if
it's also insanely great. If HyperCard can overcome its historical
baggage, this may really be "IT". It sounds like most of the barriers have
finally been swept (or blown) away. Now, make it free. :-)
Ben Lawson <be...@sickkids.on.ca>
The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
Microsoft is not the answer, Microsoft is the question. The answer is "No."
Stewart Walker
This is awesome news, yes brilliant. I assume this means that we will have
sprites in HC. Since we do physics, we still need superscripts. Will
there
be a cleaner solution for them?
Also, since it is built on QuickTime I assume we will be eventually able
to deliver on OS/2 and some flavours of UNIX also?
And is there anyway we can try out beta stuff earlier so we can figure
out
where we want to go in revving our existing content in anticipation of
these new features. I am greedy for this new stuff.
Thanks Kevin, Apple & company!!
Conrad Weiler
Hi Ben,
> In article <4nhsug$i...@ednet1.orednet.org>, cwe...@ednet1.osl.or.gov
(Conrad Weiler) wrote:
>So, it's finally announced. Hypercard 3.0 is official and able to run demos.
>What this means is that every Hypercard stack is a movie and can be played
>by ANY existing movie player, including (and demoed) MoviePlayer,
>WordPerfect, Netscape and OpenDoc's movie part.
<tonnes of other great stuff deleted>
Thanks for your thanks and enthusiasm. However, Jon Pugh (jon...@NETCOM.COM)
actually wrote the Hypercard message.
But it is great news.
Best,
Malcolm Pradhan
In article <4nj8fo$2...@sol.sun.csd.unb.ca> Stewart Walker, swa...@mta.ca writes:
>And is there anyway we can try out beta stuff earlier so we can figure
>out
> where we want to go in revving our existing content in anticipation of
> these new features. I am greedy for this new stuff.
>
>Thanks Kevin, Apple & company!!
Although I haven't used HyperCard for about 4 years I went to the
HyperCard session because one of the OpenDoc project managers told
me that it would knock my socks off. It was indeed very cool stuff.
Because HyperCard 3.0 is layered on to QuickTime 3.0's media layer
it will be the official front end to QuickTime and will adopt
whatever QuickTime gets. The demo's were pretty stable for a Spring
97 release.
The other thing that impressed me was the team Apple have assembled
to work on HyperCard 3.0. I can't remember the details there are
senior people from MacApp, AppleScript, Quicktime, and of course
past HyperCards. Apple finally gets it with HyperCard and are
putting talent behind it.
Kevin Calhoun said that the old XCMDs would run, but there was a way
of extending the tools, and a new format for externals. I gather
this means that user objects can share the screen (movie!) with the
usual HyperCard objects (buttons, fields).
My only disapointment was that HyperCard would not be an OpenDoc
container in the first release. As mentioned, because it is a movie
it can be played all over the place (OpenDoc, Netscape, etc.).
I didn't think I'd ever go back to HyperCard but I am now awaiting
the release of 3.0 with anticipation...
Regards,
Malcolm
Karl Petersen
In article <4nmlcd$c...@nntp.Stanford.EDU>, Malcolm Pradhan
<pra...@camis.stanford.edu> wrote:
> My only disapointment was that HyperCard would not be an OpenDoc
> container in the first release. As mentioned, because it is a movie
> it can be played all over the place (OpenDoc, Netscape, etc.).
Oh no! Is it really true that HyperCard 3.0 won't support OpenDoc parts? I
thought this was one of its main features.
Will OpenDoc play any role at all in HyperCard 3.0? Will HC be able to
create OpenDoc parts? Will stacks, buttons and fields *be* OpenDoc parts?
Karl Petersen
***************************************
* Karl D. Petersen
* kar...@halcyon.com
* watchin' the eagles on Bainbridge Island, WA
***************************************