Look and Learn . . .

[Richmond Mathewson]

Six years ago I designed alternative toolbars for RR
and Metacard,

through my Master's Thesis

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/RRRThesis/

I have been rabbiting on about xTalk-like programming
environments and their GUIs . . .

Pinching ideas from HyperNext

cf; 'Splash Screen Designer' at revOnline under
'Richmond'

and so on ...

Why?

Because I have a Big Bee in my Bonnet:

somewhere down the line a few things got lost sight
of:

PCs can and should be used for experts to produce
materials for content delivery and reinforcement
without those experts having to learn either
programming or the intricacies of the modern WIMP GUIs
that are almost universal.

Now MacKiev have acquired HyperStudio . . .

HyperStudio was supposed to be the "poor man's
HyperCard" insofar as programming was reduced to a
minimum

My criticism of the path that HyperStudio took was
that the end-user was enslaved by templates that
restricted individual choice and possibilities (and, I
personally, found the Dachshund vomit-making).

We don't know what MacKiev are going to do with
HyperStudio;

let's hope it is better than what HyperStudio was, and
lets hope
it is sufficiently user-friendly that it doesn't look
like RevMedia, i.e. a cut-down version of something
that is extremely powerful without the advantages that
could come from a re-designed interface that would
empower a non-specialist.

Whatever HyperStudio, HyperNext and TileStack become,
we, if we want Runtime Revolution to continue to be a
market leader in this area, should watch them very
closely and, when we see something good, adapt and
improve those ideas for RR.

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson

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A Thorn in the flesh is better than a failed Systems Development Life Cycle.
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