Imagine a world in which HyperCard had been open sourced 20 years ago?

[Peter Alcibiades]

Look, I don't want to get us off into off-topic flame wars, and I don't think 
necessarily that going Open Source is the answer for Rev, or that it would 
have been for HC.  Its worth serious consideration is all I would argue.

But you have to say that these remarks really misrepresent the Open Source 
situation totally, and if you want the proof of it, just look around you.  
Start by looking at Python, Perl and Apache.   Or look at the Gimp.  Or look 
at such a massively complex undertaking as the Debian distribution (I mention 
it only because its distributed elected management, so its classic Open 
Source, and if it can work here, it can work anywhere).   Or look at KDE and 
the suite of applications they have developed and integrated.  Look at Gnome 
for that matter.

Yes there are Debian derivatives.  No they are not vapourware, no they are not 
incompatible, and they complement it.  It is a different model, and it would 
be more productive to get used to it and understand its strengths and 
weaknesses than to misrepresent it wholesale.

Open source packages and development environments can be at least as complex 
as Rev and have a continued history of development and enhancement, and be 
perfectly usable and stable. 

The world is just not the way you are suggesting it is, and it is so obviously 
not that way, that there is little point in asserting it is.

Peter





> Perhaps:
> 1. HyperTalk is never converted from an interpreted language to a
> compiled one - no one wants to commit the resources
> 2. Five different developers rewrite the HC engine to support five
> different ways of adding color
> 3. Businesses refuse to touch HC because there are 20 different
> versions (HC - Berkeley, HC - SD, etc.)
> 4. Of the 20 versions of HC, 15 are "vaporware"
> 5. HC spawns 30 incompatible clones
> 6. All of the clones combined have a 2% market share (compared to VB,
> the "Standard RAD")
> 7. Since no one was making money on it, no "serious" development was
> done for the last 19 years
> Paul Looney
y