Re: hypercard faq?

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:
in response to my reply:
>>On the other hand, putting the A2 FAQ into a hypercard or
>>hyperstudio stack: now that would make it easy to access.  Maybe
>>some hypercard or hyperstudio gurus would like to give it a shot.
>
>   "Easy to access"??? What the heck are you smoking today?
>...
>In other words, you probably just
>made it inaccessible to (in my not-so-humble opinion) probably at
>least 90% of the people that'd want to read it.
>...
>   Sorry for stepping on the toes of hypercard/hyperstudio fanatics,
>but I don't see those products as (1) widespread, especailly in the
>Apple II community (2) readable by anyone anywhere. Therefore, I don't
>see it as a very viable distribution medium that _I_'d like to put the
>existing FAQs in. Someone else wants to do the work, fine, but my
>primary emphasis on the FAQ is universal readability and portability.

Um...Nate, you misunderstood.  I am not advocating making the A2 FAQ
ONLY hypercard or hyperstudio.  What I had in mind was something
that was interactive for the user who just wants occasional reference.
This would complement the text and HTML versions.  It would be a
hell of a lot easier to access for GS users than the text version
where you have to load a large text file and do a lot of finding
with your word processor/text editor.

An A2 FAQ-Stack would be a GREAT reference tool.  I would bet that
those GS users who don't bother to read the FAQ would start using
such a reference.

You bring up a good point about keeping it up to date.  Here's what
I was thinking.  The hypercard/hyperstudio geniuses on GEnie once
wrote both hypercard and hyperstudio stacks that actually read in
the text version of Genie Lamp and generated an output stack.  These
"construction" stacks were scripted to read in the Genie Lamp index
tags as cues for organization.  Logically, it should be equally
possible to write such scripts to look for *HTML* tags.  Imagine,
like what David Althoff proposed, a script that automatically
generated a hypercard (or hyperstudio) stack from your HTML version?
You could then update just your HTML and text versions and the
hypercard or hyperstudio version would follow automatically.

For the bare beginner, a text version may be better so that they
can read all the way through.  But for the more seasoned GS user,
a stack would make the FAQ a more easily accessed reference.

This is just my opinion, having seen both the FAQ and hypercard.

-Scott G.