Re: Any interest in hypercard GS?

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <Cys1sJ.8CB@dorsai.org>, James OReilly <joreilly@dorsai.org> wrote:
> 
> 	Does anybody know anything about Hypercard GS?  Are there any
> interest groups?

There are certainly some of us on this group who use and are
interested in HCGS.

> I understand it resembles the older versions of Mac Hypercard, but I
> don't know which version nos.

HyperCard IIgs is based on Macintosh HyperCard 1.2.5, with some
features from versions 2.0 and 2.1, plus some IIgs-specific features.
One extra feature in particular: full support of colour - coloured
foregrounds and backgrounds, coloured buttons, text, etc.

There are some minor differences in the way the IIgs version works,
mainly due to differences in the IIgs's system software and hardware.

> I have Mac Hypercard book, The Complete Hypercard Handbook, by Danny
> Goodman, which does not mention versions so I suppose it must refer
> to version 1 and therefore be applicable to Hypercard GS.

Yes.

> Could one write a database system using Hypercard GS?

No reason why not - it would be rather slow, though.

> What are the minimum and recommended hardware configurations? 

Minimum: IIgs with 1.5 MB of RAM and a hard drive, running System
5.0.4 or later.  HyperCard IIgs 1.1 is the latest version, and it can
take advantage of some new features of System 6.0.

I'd recommend at least 2 MB of RAM.  A full hard drive installation of
the standard HyperCard IIgs distribution disks (including on-line help
and the tour) requires about 4-5 megabytes (six 800k 3.5" disks).

An accelerator is also useful, but not essential.

If you want to write external commands or functions (XCMDs/XFCNs),
you'll need a compiler or assembler.  ORCA/M, ORCA/C, ORCA/Pascal and
probably ORCA/Modula-2 can be used to write XCMDs/XFCNs, as can any
other assembler, and probably some other languages (as long as they
can call the HyperCard IIgs callback entry point, which is similar to
a toolbox call, and the language can generate a subroutine-style
executable file, and you have some way of turning it into a code
resource).

The HyperCard IIgs package (including manuals) is no longer available
commercially, but the HyperCard IIgs software is available from
several sources.

The "closest" one is probably ftp.support.apple.com.  The catch:
HyperCard IIgs has been stored in a format that requires a Macintosh
to decode (DiskCopy disk image files, compressed and stores a
Macintosh self-extracting archives, then ASCII encoded using BinHex).


-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand