| HyperCard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Original author | Bill Atkinson |
| Developer | Apple Computer |
| Initial release | August 11, 1987; 38 years ago (August 11, 1987)[1][2] |
| Final release | 2.4.1 / 1998; 28 years ago (1998) |
| Written in | Apple Pascal |
| Operating system | Macintosh:System 6,System 7,Mac OS 8,Mac OS 9 Apple IIGS:GS/OS 5 and 6 |
| Platform | Macintosh,Apple IIGS |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Hypermedia,software development |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | apple.com/hypercard at theWayback Machine (archived 1998-05-09) |
HyperCard is asoftware application anddevelopment kit for AppleMacintosh andApple IIGS computers. It is among the first successfulhypermedia systems predating theWorld Wide Web.
HyperCard combines a flat-filedatabase with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface.[3] HyperCard includes a built-inprogramming language calledHyperTalk for manipulating data and the user interface.
This combination of features – a database with simple form layout, flexible support for graphics, and ease of programming – suits HyperCard for many different projects such asrapid application development of applications and databases, interactive applications with no database requirements, command and control systems, and many examples in thedemoscene.
HyperCard was originally released in 1987 for $49.95 and was included free with all new Macs sold afterwards.[1] It was withdrawn from sale in March 2004, having received its final update in 1998 upon the return ofSteve Jobs to Apple. HyperCard was not ported toMac OS X, but can run in theClassic Environment on versions of Mac OS X that support it.
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The beauty of HyperCard is that it lets people program without having to learn how to write code — what I call "programming for the rest of us". HyperCard has made it possible for people to do things they wouldn't have ever thought of doing in the past without a lot of heavy-duty programming. It's let a lot of non-programmers, like me, into that loop.
Described by creatorBill Atkinson as a "softwareerector set",[6] HyperCard is based on the concept of a "stack" of virtual "cards".[7] Cards hold data, just as they would in aRolodex card-filing device. Each card contains a set of interactive objects, including text fields, check boxes, buttons, and similar commongraphical user interface (GUI) elements. Users browse the stack by navigating from card to card, using built-in navigation features, a powerful search mechanism, or through user-created scripts.[8]
Users build or modify stacks by adding new cards. They place GUI objects on the cards using an interactive layout engine based on a simple drag-and-drop interface.[8] Also, HyperCard includes prototype or template cards called backgrounds; when new cards are created they can refer to one of these background cards, which causes all of the objects on the background to "show through" behind the new card. This way, a stack of cards with a common layout and functionality can be created. The layout engine is similar in concept to a form as used in mostrapid application development (RAD) environments such asBorlandDelphi, andMicrosoftVisual Basic andVisual Studio.
The database features of the HyperCard system are based on the storage of the state of all of the objects on the cards in the physical file representing the stack. The database does not exist as a separate system within the HyperCard stack; nodatabase engine or similar construct exists. Instead, the state of any object in the system is considered to be live and editable at any time. From the HyperCard runtime's perspective, there is no difference between moving a text field on the card and typing into it; both operations simply change the state of the target object within the stack. Such changes are immediately saved when complete, so typing into a field causes that text to be stored to the stack's physical file. The system operates in a largely stateless fashion, with no need to save during operation. This is in common with many database-oriented systems, although somewhat different from document-based applications.
The final key element in HyperCard is the script, a single code-carrying element of every object within the stack. The script is a text field whose contents are interpreted in the HyperTalk language.[8] Like any other property, the script of any object can be edited at any time and changes are saved as soon as they were complete. When the user invokes actions in the GUI, like clicking on a button or typing into a field, these actions are translated into events by the HyperCard runtime. The runtime then examines the script of the object that is the target of the event, like a button, to see if its script object contains the event's code, called a handler. If it does, the HyperTalk engine runs the handler; if it does not, the runtime examines other objects in the visual hierarchy.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 "HyperCard Mania!"Computer Chronicles, 1987 archive.org (Internet Archive) |
These concepts make up the majority of the HyperCard system; stacks, backgrounds and cards provide a form-like GUI system, the stack file providesobject persistence and database-like functionality, and HyperTalk allows handlers to be written for GUI events. Unlike the majority of RAD or database systems of the era, however, HyperCard combines all of these features, both user-facing and developer-facing, in a single application. This allows rapid turnaround and immediate prototyping, possibly without any coding, allowing users to author custom solutions to problems with their own personalized interface. "Empowerment" became a catchword as this possibility was embraced by the Macintosh community, as was the phrase "programming for the rest of us",[9][5] that is, anyone, not just professional programmers.
It is this combination of features that also makes HyperCard a powerfulhypermedia system. Users can build backgrounds to suit the needs of some system, say arolodex, and use simple HyperTalk commands to provide buttons to move from place to place within the stack, or provide the same navigation system within the data elements of the UI, like text fields. Using these features, it is easy to build linked systems similar to hypertext links on the Web.[7] Unlike the Web, programming, placement, and browsing are all the same tool. Similar systems have been created for HTML, but traditional Web services are considerably more heavyweight.
HyperCard contains anobject-orientedscripting language calledHyperTalk, which was noted for having a syntax resembling casualEnglish language. HyperTalk language features were predetermined by the HyperCard environment, although they could be extended by the use of external functions (XFCN) and commands (XCMD), written in a compiled language.[10] Theweakly typed HyperTalk supports most standard programming structures such as "if–then" and "repeat". HyperTalk is verbose, hence its ease of use and readability.[11] HyperTalk code segments are referred to as "scripts."
HyperCard can be extended significantly through the use ofexternal command (XCMD) andexternal function (XFCN) modules. These are code libraries packaged in a stack'sresource fork that integrate into either the system generally or the HyperTalk language specifically; this is an early example of theplug-in concept. Unlike conventional plug-ins, these do not require separate installation before they are available for use; they can be included in a stack, where they are directly available to scripts in that stack.
During HyperCard's peak popularity in the late 1980s, a whole ecosystem of vendors offered thousands of these externals such as HyperTalk compilers, graphing systems, database access, Internet connectivity, and animation. Oracle offered an XCMD that allows HyperCard to directly query Oracle databases on any platform, superseded byOracle Card. BeeHive Technologies offered a hardware interface that allows the computer to control external devices. Connected via theApple Desktop Bus (ADB), this instrument can read the state of connected external switches or write digital outputs to a multitude of devices.
Externals allow access to the Macintosh Toolbox, which contains many lower-level commands and functions not native to HyperTalk, such as control of the serial and ADB ports.
Among the earliest Macintosh programs was Rolo, a simple free-form database program that Atkinson distributed onbulletin board systems.[12] He created HyperCard following anLSD trip.[13] Work for it began in March 1985 under the name of WildCard (hence itscreator code of WILD). In 1986, Dan Winkler began work onHyperTalk and the name was changed to HyperCard fortrademark reasons. It was released on 11 August 1987 for the first day of theMacWorld Conference & Expo inBoston,[14] with the understanding that Atkinson would give HyperCard to Apple only if the company promised to release it for free on all Macs. Apple timed its release to coincide with Macworld to guarantee maximum publicity.
Apple chairmanJohn Sculley said "Hypercard opens up the Macintosh software environment in much the way theMacintosh II opened up Mac hardware". It andMultiFinder, also announced at Macworld, would be bundled with new Macs, and $49 each for existing customers.[6]
HyperCard was successful almost instantly. The Apple Programmer's and Developer's Association (APDA) said, "HyperCard has been an informational feeding frenzy. From August [1987, when it was announced] to October our phones never stopped ringing. It was a zoo." Within a few months of release, there were multiple HyperCard books and a 50 disk set of public domain stacks.[5] Apple's project managers found HyperCard was being used by a huge number of people, internally and externally. Bug reports and upgrade suggestions continued to flow in, demonstrating its wide variety of users. Since it was also free, it was difficult to justify dedicating engineering resources to improvements in the software. Apple and its mainstream developers understood that HyperCard's user empowerment could reduce the sales of ordinary shrink-wrapped products.[15] Stewart Alsop II speculated that HyperCard might replaceFinder as theshell of the Macintosh graphical user interface.[16]
In late 1989, Kevin Calhoun, then a HyperCard engineer at Apple, led an effort to upgrade the program. This resulted in HyperCard 2.0, released in 1990. The new version included an on-the-flycompiler that greatly increased performance of computationally intensive code, a newdebugger and many improvements to the underlying HyperTalk language.
At the same time HyperCard 2.0 was being developed, a separate group within Apple developed and in 1991 released HyperCard IIGS, a version of HyperCard for theApple IIGS system. Aimed mainly at the education market, HyperCard IIGS has roughly the same feature set as the 1.x versions of Macintosh HyperCard, while adding support for the color graphics abilities of the IIGS. Althoughstacks (HyperCard program documents) are not binary-compatible, a translator program (another HyperCard stack) allows them to be moved from one platform to the other.
Then, Apple decided that most of its application software packages, including HyperCard, would be the property of a wholly owned subsidiary calledClaris. Many of the HyperCard developers chose to stay at Apple rather than move to Claris, causing the development team to be split. Claris attempted to create a business model where HyperCard could also generate revenues. At first the freely-distributed versions of HyperCard shipped with authoring disabled. Early versions of Claris HyperCard contain anEaster Egg: typing "magic" into the message box converts the player into a full HyperCard authoring environment.[17] When this trick came to be almost universally known, they wrote a new version, HyperCard Player, which Apple distributed with the Macintoshoperating system, while Claris sold the full version commercially. Many users were upset that they had to pay to use software that had traditionally been supplied free and which many considered a basic part of the Mac.
Even after HyperCard was generating revenue, Claris did little to market it. Development continued with minor upgrades, and the first failed attempt to create a third generation of HyperCard. During this period, HyperCard began losing market share. Without several important, basic features, HyperCard authors began moving to systems such asSuperCard andMacromedia Authorware. Nonetheless, HyperCard continued to be popular and used for a widening range of applications, from the gameThe Manhole, an earlier effort by the creators ofMyst, to corporate information services.
Apple eventually folded Claris back into the parent company, returning HyperCard to Apple's core engineering group. In 1992, Apple released the eagerly anticipated upgrade of HyperCard 2.2 and included licensed versions of Color Tools and Addmotion II, adding support for color pictures and animations. However, these tools are limited and often cumbersome to use because HyperCard 2.0 lacks true, internal color support.
Several attempts were made to restart HyperCard development once it returned to Apple. Because of the product's widespread use as a multimedia-authoring tool it was rolled into theQuickTime group. A new effort to allow HyperCard to create QuickTime interactive (QTi) movies started, once again under the direction of Kevin Calhoun. QTi extended QuickTime's core multimedia playback features to provide true interactive facilities and a low-level programming language based on68000 assembly language. The resulting HyperCard 3.0 was first presented in 1996 when an alpha-quality version was shown to developers at Apple's annualApple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).[18] Under the leadership ofDan Crow development continued through the late 1990s, with public demos showing many popular features such as color support, Internet connectivity, and the ability to play HyperCard stacks (which were now special QuickTime movies) in aweb browser. Development upon HyperCard 3.0 stalled when the QuickTime team was focused away from developing QuickTime interactive to the streaming features of QuickTime 4.0. in 1998[19]Steve Jobs disliked the software because Atkinson had chosen to stay at Apple to finish it instead of joining Jobs atNeXT, and (according to Atkinson) "it had Sculley's stink all over it".[13] In 2000, the HyperCard engineering team was reassigned to other tasks after Jobs decided to abandon the product. Calhoun and Crow both left Apple shortly after, in 2001.
Its final release was in 1998, and it was totally discontinued in March 2004.[20]
HyperCard runs natively only in theclassic Mac OS, but it can still be used inMac OS X'sClassic mode on PowerPC based machines (G5 and earlier). The last functional native HyperCard authoring environment is Classic mode in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) on PowerPC-based machines.
HyperCard has been used for a range of hypertext and artistic purposes. Before the advent ofPowerPoint, HyperCard was often used as a general-purpose presentation program. Examples of HyperCard applications include simple databases, "choose your own adventure"-type games, and educational teaching aids.
Due to its rapid application design facilities, HyperCard was also often used for prototyping applications and sometimes even for version 1.0 implementations. Inside Apple, the QuickTime team was one of HyperCard's biggest customers.
HyperCard has lower hardware requirements thanMacromedia Director. Several commercial software products were created in HyperCard, most notably the original version of the graphic adventure gameMyst,[21] theVoyager Company'sExpanded Books, multimedia CD-ROMs ofBeethoven's Ninth Symphony CD-ROM,A Hard Day's Night bythe Beatles, and the VoyagerMacBeth. An early electronic edition of theWhole Earth Catalog was implemented in HyperCard.[22] and stored on CD-ROM.[23]
The prototype and demo of the popular gameYou Don't Know Jack was written in HyperCard.[24][25] The French auto manufacturerRenault used it to control their inventory system.[7][26]
In Quebec, Canada, HyperCard was used to control a robot arm used to insert and retrievevideo disks at theNational Film Board CinéRobothèque.
In 1989, Hypercard was used to control the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Studio Network, using a single Macintosh.[27]
HyperCard was used to prototype a fully functional prototype of SIDOCI (one of the first experiments in the world to develop an integratedelectronic patient record system) and was heavily used by Montréal Consulting firm DMR to demonstrate what "a typical day in the life of a patient about to get surgery" would look like in a paperless age.
Activision, which was until then mainly a game company, saw HyperCard as an entry point into the business market. Changing its name to Mediagenic, it published several major HyperCard-based applications, most notablyDanny Goodman's Focal Point,[22] a personal information manager, and Reports For HyperCard, a program by Nine To Five Software that allows users to treat HyperCard as a full database system with robust information viewing and printing features.
The HyperCard-inspiredSuperCard for a while included theRoadster plug-in that allowed stacks to be placed inside web pages and viewed byweb browsers with an appropriate browser plug-in. There was even a Windows version of this plug-in allowing computers other than Macintoshes to use the plug-in.
The first HyperCard virus was discovered in Belgium and the Netherlands in April 1991.[28]
Because HyperCard executed scripts in stacks immediately on opening, it was also one of the first applications susceptible tomacro viruses. The Merryxmas virus was discovered in early 1993[29] by Ken Dunham, two years before theConcept virus.[30] Very few viruses were based on HyperCard, and their overall impact was minimal.
"Hypercard Steals Show At Macworld Exposition",InfoWorld reported in August 1987. The magazine said that Apple expected to put the "unusual" software in Macs'ROM, and that third-party developers would create most stackware.[6] Besides Activision and Goodman,Dialog and theWhole Earth Catalog announced stackware at the show, whileDan Bricklin said HyperCard "seems to be the best" hypertext software so far.[31] The magazine's Michael J. Miller said "Hypercard is unlike anything else I've seen". While predicting that many would find it useful just for the built-in applications, he concluded that "Hypercard seems so deep and so powerful that I'm sure I haven't discovered everything it's capable of. Yet it's surprisingly simple to use ... It's a unique program at an unbelievable price".[12] While noting HyperCard's slow performance and incomplete documentation,MacWeek's David Dunham said that it had replaced MacPaint as "the greatest program ever written".[32]
Within one week, an estimated 10,000 copies had been distributed; 35,000 copies within one month. Goodman's on HyperCard manual, released at the same time as the software, became the best-selling Macintosh book in history.[14]Compute!'s Apple Applications in 1987 stated that HyperCard "may make Macintosh the personal computer of choice". While noting that its large memory requirement made it best suited for computers with 2 MB of memory and hard drives, the magazine predicted that "the smallest programming shop should be able to turn out stackware", especially for using CD-ROMs.[33]Compute! predicted in 1988 that most future Mac software would be developed using HyperCard, if only because using it was so addictive that developers "won't be able to tear themselves away from it long enough to create anything else".[34]Byte in 1989 listed it as among the "Excellence" winners of the Byte Awards. While stating that "like any first entry, it has some flaws", the magazine wrote that "HyperCard opened up a new category of software", and praised Apple for bundling it with every Mac.[35] In 2001Steve Wozniak called HyperCard "the best program ever written".[36]
HyperCard is one of the first products that made use of and popularized thehypertext concept to a large popular base of users.
Jakob Nielsen has pointed out that HyperCard was really only ahypermedia program since its links started from regions on a card, not text objects; actualHTML-style texthyperlinks were possible in later versions, but were awkward to implement and seldom used.[37][38]Deena Larsen programmed links into HyperCard for Marble Springs. Bill Atkinson later lamented that if he had only realized the power of network-oriented stacks, instead of focusing on local stacks on a single machine, HyperCard could have become the first Web browser.[39]
HyperCard saw a loss in popularity with the growth of the World Wide Web, since the Web could handle and deliver data in much the same way as HyperCard without being limited to files on a localhard disk. HyperCard had a significant impact on the web as it inspired the creation of bothHTTP (through its influence onTim Berners-Lee's colleagueRobert Cailliau),[40] andJavaScript (whose creator,Brendan Eich, was inspired byHyperTalk[41]). It was also a key inspiration forViolaWWW, an early web browser.[42]
The pointing-fingercursor used for navigating stacks was later used in the first web browsers, as the hyperlink cursor.[43]
TheMyst computer game franchise, initially released as a HyperCard stack and included bundled with some Macs (for example thePerforma 5300), still lives on, making HyperCard a facilitating technology for starting one of the best-selling computer games of all time.[44]
According toWard Cunningham, the inventor ofWiki, the wiki concept can be traced back to a HyperCard stack he wrote in the late 1980s.[45][46][47]
In 2017 theInternet Archive established a project to preserve andemulate HyperCard stacks, allowing users to upload their own.[48]
The GUI of the prototype AppleWizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone was based on HyperCard.[49]
HyperCard influenced the development of the Web in late 1990 through its influence onRobert Cailliau, who assisted in developingTim Berners-Lee's first Web browser.[50] Javascript was inspired by HyperTalk.[51]
Although HyperCard stacks do not operate over theInternet, by 1988, at least 300 stacks were publicly available for download from the commercialCompuServe network (which was not connected to the official Internet yet). The system can link phone numbers on a user's computer together and enable them to dial numbers without a modem, using a less expensive piece of hardware, the Hyperdialer.[52]
In this sense, like the Web, it does form an association-based experience of information browsing via links, though not operating remotely over the TCP/IP protocol then. Like the Web, it also allows for the connections of many different kinds of media.
Atkinson said that the odds a non-Macintosh software product would clone HyperCard were "99 percent", and hoped that they would be data compatible with HyperCard.[53] As of 2024[update], two products are available which offer HyperCard-like abilities:
Past products include:
In addition, many of the basic concepts of the original system were later re-used in other forms. Apple built its system-wide scripting engineAppleScript on a language similar to HyperTalk; it is often used fordesktop publishing (DTP)workflow automation needs.[citation needed] In the 1990sFaceSpan provided a third-party graphical interface. AppleScript also has a native graphical programming front-end called Automator, released withMac OS X Tiger in April 2005. One of HyperCard's strengths was its handling ofmultimedia, and many multimedia systems likeMacromedia Authorware andMacromedia Director are based on concepts originating in HyperCard.[60]
AppWare, originally named Serius Developer, is sometimes seen to be similar to HyperCard, as both arerapid application development (RAD) systems. AppWare was sold in the early 90s and worked on both Mac and Windows systems.
Zoomracks, an application for theAtari ST and IBM PC compatibles with a similar "stack" database metaphor, predates HyperCard by four years, which led to a contentious lawsuit against Apple.[citation needed]
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{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Its string handling is the most flexible I've seen - the language contains primitives for directly addressing any character, word, logical line, or chunk delimited by any character you choose. The natural-language syntax - "wait until the mouse is down", "if it is not a number then beep", "get word 3 to 10 of line 8 of theAnswer", and "go to the last card of this stack" are all legal HyperTalk expressions - makes it a joy to read and easy to maintain.
Claris also tried an interim scheme of shipping a crippled, low user-level, Home stack, which users could override by typing 'magic' in the message box. There was some confusion between this version and the Player, that had people trying unsuccessfully to type 'magic' in the message box of the Player. The magic in HyperCard 2.2 is all plain and visible.
/mac/util/virus/merryxmaskiller.sit.hqx 8 4/27/93 BinHex4.0,StuffIt3.50 Eliminate a script-based virus called "merryxmas." Requires HyperCard 2.0.The biggest failing of HyperCard for anyone interested in hypertext is the lack of text links.
The biggest failing of HyperCard for anyone interested in hypertext is the lack of text links.
I got a HyperCard manual and looked at it and just basically took the concepts and implemented them in X-windows [sic].
After our addition of in-browser early Macintosh emulation earlier this year, the Internet Archive now has a lot of emulated Hypercard stacks available for perusal, and we encourage you to upload your own, easily and quickly.