From: doucas@cerberus.bhpese.oz.au (Chris Doucas)
Subject: Re: 2nd Party HyperCard Books-- i.e., How can I get TFM?
Organization: BHP Information Technology
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 00:23:17 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.hypercard

In article <-1wz1lh@rpi.edu>, liebea@vccnw01.its.rpi.edu (Adam Fred
Lieberman) wrote:
> 
>      My computer came with HyperCard version 2.1.  The paltry documentation
> accompanying it doesn't discuss it, but the authoring and scripting capabilities
> are there.  So I went to the dealer (RPI's own ITSPC) and asked how I could
> purchase the standard HyperCard documentation (all this was included with
> earlier Macs).  They informed me that the only way they knew about was to
> buy the HyperCard Development Kit.  This should not be necessary.  All I
> want is information on using the software I've got.  Could someone please
> tell me how it's easy for me to obtain the manuals?
> 
> 						-Adam Lieberman

-Adam,

I just had this conversation with a colleague yesterday.... Assuming Apple
dealers operate similar policies overseas, when you pay for the Hypercard
development Kit(as my colleague did), you are paying primarily for the
manuals.
Hypercard is bundled with current Mac's in total, and is 99.99% the same
before
and after you 'buy' the development kit. The only difference is that your
userlevel has been set to 1 or 2 which only allows you to browse, type
text, etc. On your Home stack the userlevel settings card may have an
opaque 'cover' button hiding the other userlevel settings 3, 4, 5. You turn
Hypercard into the Development Kit by simply

1) typying the 'set the userlevel to 5' command in a message box(Command-M)
to be able to do authoring and scripting. 


2) You can go to the userlevel settings card of your Home stack, choose the
button options from the tools menu. You'll see a sliding cursor on the
bottom
left pointing to level 1 or 2. There is an opaque 'cover' button just
above, covering levels 3, 4, 5. Remove the 'cover' button, and oila! 

(this all sounds like a lot, but it is done in about 45 seconds.)

So, to your question on manuals... I've gone from novice to advanced user
in about 8 months. For my money,the dealer supplied HyperCard manuals are
no  better than other apple manuals(ie not very good). They have some nice
exercises for you to do, but after a few days of serious use, you outgrow
the
manuals.

The best bet is third party publications such as "The complete HyperCard
Handbook" by Danny Goodman. There are several other publications (ie
Hypercard tricks from the Masters, etc). Where you find one, you can find
others in your neighborhood techie bookstore. These books are written by
developers giving you strategies and tecniques and standards for
development no "manuals" will give you. Good Luck! 


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