Re: Hyperstudio and Deskpak Desk Accessories

[gareth@vcn.bc.ca (Gareth Jones)]

Jeff Lemke (lemke@terra.cira.colostate.edu) wrote:
: 
: You said Hyper Studio was in the same category as Hyper Card IIgs.  If
: you know what the differences are if any, for comparision's sake, please
: post that.
: 
: Thanks for the initial information.
: 
: Jeff Lemke

This is a topic for a whole article! OK, from the top of my head:

1. HyperStudio started out as a way of handling multimedia easily. You
could use 640 or 320 mode graphics, record and attach sounds to
buttons (with the included microphone and sound card), import text or
AppleWorks word processing files into text fields and dress them up with
different sizes, fonts, styles. You selected the actions that clicking a
button would perform from a list of possibilities. Later (under the
influence of HyperCard) a programming language was added.

2. HyperCard IIgs uses 640-mode graphics, comes with no sound card,
imports text files into text fields but only lets you have one font, size,
and style per field. There's no list of actions that clicking a button
will perform - instead, you create a _script_ that controls the action of
the button. And, unlike HyperStudio, anything can have a script: a button,
a field, a card, a background, or a stack. And the scripts can control
anything that's available to the program. For example, the "doMenu"
command will do the equivalent of pulling down a menu and making a
selection for you. The scripting is less thorough in HyperStudio.

The SimpleScript language bundled with HyperStudio for the GS is not used
in HyperStudio for the Mac. The HyperTalk language used in HyperCard for
the GS is also used for HyperCard for the Mac. So your skills, while
perhaps more painfully acquired, are of more general use.

The best way to see what the two programs are capable of is to look at a
few stacks. You can download HCGS for free and see what stacks are
included. For HyperSTudio, look for its "runtime module" (which is a
version that will run stacks but won't let you create new ones). This is
free, and there are a lot of HyperSTudio (and HyperCard GS) stacks to look
at on the ground site (http://ground.isca.uiowa.edu)

Also check out the HyperCard IIgs FAQ held at
http://people.delphi.com/appleblossom/

I hope this helps. The best of both worlds is to buy HyperStudio and
download HyperCard IIgs, then experiment with both to see what they offer
:-)

-Gareth