Dan's Post re RunRev's HyperCard Roots

[Rob Cozens]

Apologies all: I deleted Dan Shafer's post before responding & don't 
recall the exact subject.

I must say that in my opinion:

1. the HyperCard community in general bears a large part of the 
responsibility for whatever prejudices against xTalks exist among 
professional software developers,

2. ignorant software reviewers played a part, and

3.  HyperCard was a victim of its own success.

Let's discuss 2 & 3 first, as #1 basically results from the 
community's reaction to them.

2.  In my experience, software reviewers are writers, not developers, 
and their reviews are rarely done in a depth that would qualify them 
to proclaim any real knowledge or understanding of the product they 
review.  When HyperCard was introduced, reviewers quickly & 
universally proclaimed it slow and a memory hog, COMPARED TO SOFTWARE 
THEY KNEW THAT DIDN'T SUPPORT GRAPHICS, SOUNDS, VISUAL EFFECTS, etc. 
The comparison was unfair & unfounded; but it was obvious (like the 
"Run Rev has a fatal flaw: its Quit button is under the File menu on 
OSX" B/S).

3.  Because HyperCard enabled non-programmers to create useful (to 
the creator) software, a plethora of "amateurish" stacks appeared on 
AOL and elsewhere.  This lead to the ridicule of HyperCard by people 
who conveniently ignored the fact that the creators of those stack 
were non-professionals who could have produced NOTHING if given a C 
compiler or even a Basic interpreter.

1.  In reaction to 2 & 3, the HyperCard community took a defensive 
posture, and much bandwidth was used discussing how to hide the fact 
that one's application was HyperCard-based.

I believe this is exactly the wrong reaction.  XTalks have many 
advantages compared to other development platforms; and we should be 
pro-active in making the software development community aware of 
these rather than cringing if we are associated with the "HyperCard 
scourge."

Have a C programmer show you his/her app.  Now ask, "What happens to 
your app if you change a line in this library routine?"  When the 
person gets through describing the process of linking and 
redistributing x MB of application files, say "Gee, all I have to do 
is replace the library file and every app that uses the library picks 
up the change...
and BTW, I can change libraries on-the-fly at runtime, can't you?"

There are many good reasons for a professional developer to select 
xTalks as development platforms.  We should be promoting them and 
challenging reviewers & others who ignorantly spread inaccurate or 
incomplete information, rather than apologizing for, or hiding, our 
HyperCard roots...

...or let the ignorant & misinformed select a different platform and 
compete with us where we have the advantage.         :{`)
-- 

Rob Cozens
CCW, Serendipity Software Company
http://www.oenolog.com/who.htm

"And I, which was two fooles, do so grow three;
Who are a little wise, the best fooles bee."

from "The Triple Foole" by John Donne (1572-1631)