From: draper@odin.mda.uth.tmc.edu (E.J. Draper)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: The DEATH of HyperCard and Don Crabb
Date: 27 Jan 1993 18:01:48 GMT
Organization: U.T.M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
X-UserAgent: Nuntius v1.1.1d17
X-XXMessage-ID: <A78C286E2402019A@mdarpi1.mda.uth.tmc.edu>
X-XXDate: Wed, 27 Jan 93 17:54:22 GMT


In article <1993Jan26.212701.13373@nmsu.edu> GRUBB, bgrubb@dante.nmsu.edu
writes:
>Well I read about the hiatus {death} of HyperCard in MacWeek and now I
find
>out that a program was developed to transfer SuperCard projects to
HyperCard
>because Aldus is looking to sale SuperCard.  Now where the %^$#*& do we
go?

That article, from Don (Fatman) Crabb, was one of the most absurd
features I've ever read in MacWeek. But it never ceases to amaze me how
much of an impact such blatant nonsense can make on an industry.  

Example:
I just returned from a meeting with one of our physicians who had clipped
the article out of MacWeek to give to me.  After reading this article he
was *very* concerned about using HyperCard in current and future
products.  I had quite a job on my hands in trying to convince him that
everything was okay. I'm sure there are plenty of other people around the
world that have been put in a similar position.  These are some of the
points I made when I discussed the article with him:

= GENERAL POINTS = 

1) Claris has done an ABYSMAL job at maintaining ALL their products.  The
only product that's been even remotely properly updated has been
FileMaker.  If you think they've done a terrible job with HyperCard, ask
yourself about the fabled MacWrite Pro, or MacPaint or MacProject.  

2) The people in HyperCard marketing don't realize how important the
"strategic leak" is.  People in the industry count on these little
tidbits of data to help them make decisions about product direction. 
Claris has been dead silent about HyperCard for far too long.  As of
right now, I don't think they have any idea how INCREDIBLY important it
is to make a public announcement about the direction of HyperCard.  Right
now, vaporware is far superior to the black void we all are facing.

3) Why on earth would Apple want to give away source code to one of the
most revolutionary products in the software industry?  Is Crabb out of
his mind?

4) His idea about selling the source to Danny Goodman or Dan Shafer was
utterly preposterous. These people are writers, they are not high powered
businessmen.  They don't even begin to have to resources it would take to
develop and market HyperCard.

= INACCURACIES =

1) AppleScript != HyperTalk.  HyperTalk is a scripting language,
AppleScript is a technology.  AppleScript is not syntax dependent, for
example, you can use UserTalk (Frontier's scripting language) to write
AppleScript "scripts."  Crabb uses AppleScript and HyperTalk
interchangeably.

2) The entire article stems from a one misplaced presupposition, that
being, that HyperCard will "die."  No evidence of this impending "death"
was provided by Crabb.

3) HyperCard already supports APIs to other languages. It always has. 
You can write externals in everything from BASIC to assembler to Pascal,
FORTRAN and C.

4) HyperCard already supports Multimedia extensions in the form of above
XCMDs.

= SUMMARY =

Besides his support of Nisus, Crabb's column has always been something of
an annoyance to me.  He is frequently inaccurate and generally his
rantings are best ignored.  I think MacWeek should look for someone else
to fill his editorial space.


      |E|J-  ED DRAPER
 rEpar|D|<-  Radiologic/Pathologic Institute
             The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
             draper@odin.mda.uth.tmc.edu