Hyper Birthday
Volume Number: 4
Issue Number: 10
Column Tag: HyperChat®
Happy Birthday 
By Fred Stauder, HyperChat Editor, Zurich, Switzerland
on HyperChat
Happy Birthday HyperCard
MacWorld once again has brought us HyperCard-this time in it’s first birthday
shoes. There were forums dedicated to HyperCard and a first birthday extravaganza
party which included a giant cake and a HyperCard time capsule.
The exciting thing at the show was a trend to expand the uses HyperCard.
Bill has done some more magic by creating Hyperscan, which is a stack that
controls the new Apple scanner. Apple has also released through APDA a serial toolkit
that allows you to access the serial ports through a series of XCMD’s. Also released is a
Laserdisc driver Interactive video toolkit that allows you to build videodisc stacks, and
a HyperAppletalk driver that allows you to make networked HyperCard Stacks (this
was written by Don Koscheka). Needless to say we will have some great articles on this
in the future.
Versacad
A very novel way of using HyperCard was implemented by Versacad. They open
Versacad files with HyperCard and get a list of objects in a drawing (HyperCard can
open any file, and information can be written or retrieved by knowing the offset of
items), then they use HyperCard to do a cost analysis of the project. For example, you
put in the cost of each part of a motor, and HyperCard does the calculations.
Bright Star
Bright Star technology have released their HyperCard Face driver (see May
issue) called HyperAnimator. This is the type of technology that will lead us to the
Knowledge navigator. I will be showing you how to use this technology in innovative
ways in a later issue. (See Figure 1).
Figure 1. HyperAnimator From Bright Star
ACM
I was at SIGGRAPH just before MacWorld, and it was really interesting to see the
Mac being accepted warmly by the graphics crowd. The Association of Computer
Machinery (ACM) has released a great Database of HyperText articles using
HyperCard, a valuble resource. (See Figure 2).
Figure 2. ACM
Stack Starter
This is a stack which has the best collection of innovative buttons and controls
that I have seen, including incredible animated icons with sound effects. This stack was
written by Robertson Smith and is Shareware available from Cumputerware and BB’s.
(See Figure 3, on next page).
Figure 3. Sample Controls
Amanda Stories
Amanda Goodenough has brought out another story Called “Your faithful Camel
goes to the North Pole.” Amanda is a story herself. She is a person that was unknown in
the computer industry a year ago and now is very involved in the industry. She created
“Inigo get’s out”, and the response from children was so great, it made us adults look
at what she was doing. She was a speaker at MacWorld and is praised for her stack
simplicity. I will demonstarate some of the concepts of design that Amanda is trying to
convey in an article in a later issue. I think we should take an example from Amanda
that Simplicity and content are the keys to good stack creation. (See Figure 4).
Figure 4. Your Faithful Camel
Great Book
Gary Bond’s XCMD’s for HyperCard is a must if you are witing XCMD’s; it is a
good beginners guide and a great reference book.
Send your Articles, ScriptTips, SpeedTips, etc. to:
Fred Stauder
Ecofin Reseach and Consulting
Lavaterstrasse 45
Zurich 8002
Switzerland
or
Applelink D0280
or
To the MacTutor Office
end HyperChat
Referenced by (2):