From: Don Lee <DL10@cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: Authoring tools recommendations? (repost?)
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A7024806EE01EC11@cu-dialup-0107.cit.cornell.edu>
X-Xxdate: Wed, 14 Oct 92 21: 56:22 GMT
Nntp-Posting-User: dl10@cornell.edu
Organization: Cornell Information Technologies
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 02:19:56 GMT

In article <MARK.92Oct14144443@indian.prepress.com> Mark S. Bubien,
mark@prepress.com writes:
>I am thinking about getting into the world of authoring.
>I am a total novice, and I know almost nothing about the field.
>
>I am hoping to produce some kind of CD-ROM based, multimedia,
>interactive program.  I have heard of Macromind Director, but
>it's pretty darned expensive (and I don't know what it can do).
>
>Does anyone have any recommendations, given the above constraints?
>IE Hypercard, Supercard, Macromind, or whatever else is out there.
>
>Thanks
>	Mark
>--

Well, the major authoring tools I've used to some extent (some more than
others) are:
HyperCard, SuperCard, "MacroMind" Director, and Authorware Professional
(--Macromind and Authorware have merged to become Macromedia).  There are
arguments to be made for each - but since you've indicated that Director
is probably too expensive, you're probably down to a choice between
HyperCard and SuperCard.  (Full retail price of Authorware Professional
was in the $8000 range the last I checked - on the order of $1000 with an
educational discount, however.)

Some [very] brief comments on each:

Authorware Professional
	- (relatively) easy to use - you essentially drag special icons and
contruct a flow of
	   control
 - for more advanced options, it's got scripting ability
 - can use many existing XCMDS for Hypercard - without any re-compilation

Macromind Director
 - great graphics/animation tools
 - learning how to script with director is probably a little more
difficult than with the
   others
 - my impression was it's text handling ability wasn't particularly strong
 - uses something called XObjects rather than XCMDs
 [If you've ever seen/played the CD-ROM based games from Reactor like
Spaceship Warlock -
  it was all put together in Director (I think they also used Macromind
3D for extra 
  graphics work.)]

SuperCard [I've used this the least so I can't really get specific]
 - very similar to HyperCard in terms of scripting language (but they are
different)
 - HyperCard XCMDs can be used, but they need to be converted to
SuperCard format
 - one obvious difference between it and HyperCard (unaltered version
2.1) is built-in
   support for color

HyperCard
 - the least expensive of the bunch (especially if you got a full working
version packaged
   with your Mac) -- all you really need is a good HyperTalk reference
manual to learn
   scripting 
 - probably the most prevalent authoring tool among Mac owners (although
I believe it's
   possible to generate self-running presentations/demos/etc. with all
four tools so
   this may not be an issue for you - in terms of distribution)
 - no built in support for color (yet) (there are XCMDs which can
simulate it)
 - no real built-in support for animation (there's a commercial product
called Add Motion
   which is pretty good)


All the tools I mentioned above will support QuickTime (either directly
or through XCMDs).  Also (either built-in or through XCMDs/XObjects) they
can handle device (i.e. CD-ROM drives) control.


I've undoubtedly [definitely] left out lots of details - so feel free to
ask any specific questions.

Don Lee (DL10@cornell.edu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.comm