HyperCard for the iPad

[David Bovill]

This has been troubling me. Steve jobs is reputed to have said:

“Something like HyperCard on the iPad? Yes, but someone would have to create
it”

at the Apple’s shareholder
meeting<http://www.macworld.com/article/146739/2010/02/2010appleshareholdermtg.html>some
time in early 2010. The closest source to this I can find is
here<http://www.macworld.com/article/146739/2010/02/2010appleshareholdermtg.html>(the
relevant section below is at the bottom of the article):

As usual, there were also a number of off-beat comments and questions,
> ranging from suggestions that Apple invest in Tesla Motors (Jobs: “We were
> thinking of a toga party, actually”) to a request for a flagship Apple Store
> in Cupertino (“I’ll pass that on to our retail team”), to a suggestion that
> Apple partner with Nintendo (strategic alliances are hard, but possible if
> it’s worth it), to a desire for a simple programming language on the iPad
> (“Something like HyperCard on the iPad? Yes, but someone would have to
> create it”). Jobs declined to comment on the possibility of a
> Verizon-network iPhone.
>

So it was a casual remark - not thought through maybe? I'd be tempted to be
generous on this one - and figure that he meant what he said. If so it would
be real interesting to ask on what legal and technical basis someone could
do that. I don't think his answer would be along Rodeo lines - that is you'd
have to create web app's.

So perhaps it is worth asking along which lines a real HyperCard app could
be made on the iPhone? How about a community drafted letter - one directed
specifically at this question and to clarify his thinking on this? What
would such a letter look like? Which is the best open platform out there to
draft such a letter together and collect signatures?

NB - I'd be tempted to think that one possible answer which would square the
circle (with regard to Apples concerns with a middle layer lock in) - is if
the HyperCard app on the iPhone was open source. Then there would be no
lock-in against Apples interest as if they or any Apple developers wanted to
improve and add platform specific features they would have the power to do
that? That is surely part of the logic behind why JavaScript is OK.