Engelbart and Kay --was: Back to the Future with Hypercard

[Mark Schonewille]

Hi Ken,

Of course, you need features that I don't need and the reverse. In  
fact, I am now using features in Revolution that I never missed in  
HyperCard and I probably can't do without them anymore.

HyperCard is very different from Revolution, for a few reasons. One  
of the main reasons is that HyperCard is a complete database by  
itself, which Revolution simply isn't. I believe we need those new  
features, because Revolution is a different product. I also believe  
that there is nothing we do in Revolution, which couldn't be done in  
HyperCard. In Revolution, we just do it in a different way, probably  
more quickly, and we use new technologies to get the job done.

I have no intention whatsoever to start a discussion about whether  
Rev is better/worse/the same compared to HC. The two are just too  
different for that. I'd rather not be part of that round table  
discussion. I just wanted to make clear that many, but not all, of  
the innovations in Revolution that Bill listed off the top of his  
head aren't real innovations. They are just improvements of features  
that have been seen elsewhere before. Great improvements for sure,  
but no real innovations. For many of the innovations, we have to  
credit the HyperCard developers.

To avoid an endless discussion, this is meant to be my last  
contribution to this thread. Anyone who wants to continue discussing  
this topic with me, please write me off-list.

Best regards,

Mark Schonewille

--

Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
http://economy-x-talk.com
http://www.salery.biz

Quickly extract data from your HyperCard stacks with DIFfersifier.  
http://differsifier.economy-x-talk.com


Op 2-jan-2008, om 16:42 heeft Ken Ray het volgende geschreven:
>
> I read your responses, and the first thing I did was perform the same
> comparisons you did relative to my personal experience with HC since I
> stood in line to get a box the first day it was released in my area...
> the funny thing is that most of the things you mention you didn't need
> were things I longed for in the stacks I was building, or had to have
> some extraordinary workaround to accomplish the goals I was targeting.
>
> Not to belittle any of your comments, or the genius of the people who
> built HyperCard - quite the opposite - the point is that HyperCard  
> (and
> the other xTalks that followed, including Revolution), were/are  
> used by
> a wide variety of people with a diverse set of experiences, markets,
> needs, and desires. So while we may have opposite opinions of where  
> Rev
> falls compared to HC, I respect your opinion nonetheless.
>
> As to how much better/worse/the same Rev is in comparison to HC, while
> it would be a n interesting roundtable discussion, the only thing I  
> can
> say is "your mileage may vary" (YMMV).
>
> :-)
>
>
> Ken Ray