OMG WAP! I was a member of Washington Apple Pi from the Apple ][ days. I just loved the meetings and journals (a bunch of which are online). Are you the Paul who worked at Computerland?
https://www.wap.org/journal/showcase/
To give you an idea of just how exciting and groundbreaking and disruptive HyperCard was, and how many people were going totally and justifiably ape-shit about it when it was released, here are the first mentions of it I could find in just the October 1987 WAP journal, talking about how it was the hit of several Mac trade shows:
There was a WAP HyperCARD SIG, and Bill Atkinson even gave a demo of HyperCard at a special WAP meetings!
https://www.wap.org/journal/showcase/washingtonapplepijourna...
Washington Apple Pi Journal, October 1987
HyperCard SIG, Robert C. Platt, page 76:
President's Corner by Tom Warrick
[...] HyperCard (about which more later)
requires a minimum of about 700K of RAM in which to run. If
you actually want to run two powerful applications at the same
time, you will need the next step up-2.5 megabytes of RAM. [...]
[...] Bernie reported that Bill Baldridge has done some interesting work on a HyperCard application which would describe WAP. Tom's picture is already on the HyperCard stack. Bernie hopes to see a complete package at dealers when we have it completed. [...]
[...] We ended on a happier note with a demonstration of Bill Atkinson's amazing HyperCard, the hit of the Boston Expo and a program which will no doubt be fully discussed elsewhere in the Journal. [...]
With Mac fever, all kinds of people clamored around the Expo floor with Mac tote bags, filling them up with complimentary copies of MacWeek, MacUser, MacWorld, MACazine, The
Macintosh Business Letter (premiere edition) and hundreds of flyers being handed out by hawkers dressed in medieval costumes or business suits or T-shirts. Terms like Connectivity, MultiFinder, HyperCard and "stackware developer" were tossed
about even more freely.
As everyone knows now, HyperCard was the main feature at the Expo; a new programming environment had been introduced. It was programming for "real people", as Jean-Louis
Gassée explained it. Super star Bill Atkinson had created a combination operating system shell, database manager and programming environment with this "real person" user interface. No one could seem to clearly describe all that HyperCard could
do; but everyone in the know alluded to its potential. John Sculley called it a "personal information tool kit" in Apple's press release. It is an organizer of words, numbers, sounds and pictures into programs coined "stackware". You will see "stackware" everywhere soon (already there are "stackware" downloads on WAP's BBS). You won't fully appreciate HyperCard until you have tried it. Let me warn you, HyperCard screams for
memory, so it is a great lead-in for adding 1 meg chips or better yet, CD-ROM. Now, we need some import utilities so we can easily load existing databases into stacks regardless of the delimiters.
Jean-Louis Gassée was the Wednesday afternoon speaker.
Sporting a three piece suit and diamond earring, he told his
audience, "PCs are the wings of the mind" and that they would
eventually enrich the quality of human life. He added, that
HyperCard would also change the world and the way computers
deal with information-in a more human like way. It really did
sound like "hype card" might have been a more descriptive name
for the software. I think I was supposed to leave that session on
a kind of religious high, a Macintosh religious high. However, I
was more intent on finding a rest room with less than 25 people
in line.
The second-strongest impression I came away with was the
number of companies that will not be around in two years' time,
or that will be back in 10-foot by 10-foot booths instead of large,
open displays on the show floor. In databases; for example, 4th
Dimension was there solidifying its toehold on the high-end
database market. With HyperCard--being distributed free with
Macintoshes bought beginning August 11--capturing much of
the low-end database market, it is easy to see those two products
(along with, perhaps, dBase Mac, which may gain a niche in
those businesses where dBase III is king) dividing the Mac
database world amongst themselves. I would not want to be a
stockholder in Blyth Software (Omnis) or Odesta (Helix). [...]
A few other MacWorld impressions: HyperCard was, to
most, the hit of the show. It is hard to describe but easy to
understand when you see it, which I urge everyone to do. It
combines some aspects of a regular low-end database application,
FileVision (a graphics database), and hypertext (such as
Owl's Guide program). Bill Atkinson and others have put an
enormous amount of work into making it very fast. But one of
the most impressive capabilities is its "authoring" capability,
that will let non-programmers set up programmable database
applications without too much difficulty. For those a little more
adventurous, HyperTalk is a relatively simple programming
language that allows HyperCard to do some pretty sophisticated
things. In many respects these "authoring" and programming
capabilities represent something of the case of use and power that
Applesoft BASIC represented for the Apple II: the return of the
weekend programmer. Apple is, as noted above, bundling it free
with Macs sold on or after August II, and the list price for us
pioneers is $49.95.
Special Meeting
Saturday November 7, USUHS
9:00 AM until ?
Bill Atkinson and friends on HyperCard
Definite Maybe!
The "Smell" of Mac Expo, by Martin Milrod
The Boston MacExpo, August 11-13, '87, had four major
themes: big screens, color, accelerator cards and HyperCard.
Those have been commented upon elsewhere, and I'll not repeat
the technical descriptions in depth. My purpose is to give you the
"smell" or personality of the Expo. [...]
The last major announced product is HyperCard developed by
Bill Atkinson of MacPaint fame. He has been working on
HyperCard for three years and it has been described by Bill as the
greatest microcomputer announcement since the Macintosh. If
you spent three years of your life working on one project. I guess
you would like it to be called the greatest product since sliced
bread.
Acceptance of HyperCard may be hindered by a lack of true
understanding of just what it is. It is an innovative product that
will eventually integrate graphics, text, music, voice and animation into a programmable interactive environment. It is supposed to allow users to organize data the way humans think and not the
way computers impose on the user. It is also described as the first
of a new kind of software applications called "stackware."
Rolodex style index cards are used to store data and a group of
cards is called a "stack." It is based on the idea of a card file, with
each card equal to a screen full of information that can be
searched and linked together. Searching stacks of millions of
cards is reported to be very fast. Since I'm getting confused
myself, I will quote from Apple's literature on this product.
"You make notes, type, or draw on them just as you might on
paper index cards. You can sort cards, browse among them, or
quickly find specific information by pointing and clicking on
"buttons." "Buttons do specific tasks, such as linking or connecting one card to another. Buttons can also do many other things,
such as dialing a phone, printing a report, and even launching
other applications." HyperCard also comes with "HyperTalk"
which is a powerful English scripting language which permits
users to write script directions to buttons. Professional developers can use HyperTalk to control external devices such as
videodisc players, on-line information services and CD-ROM
drives.
HyperCard requires a Macintosh Plus, SE or II with at least
1 meg of RAM, and 2 megs is required if you want to use
HyperCard with other applications under MultiFinder. If your
still confused you have lots of company. Only time will tell just
how useful or great HyperCard really is. Apple will begin
bundling it free with all new Macintoshes but it will be available
with documentation for $49 to current Macintosh users.
Book Reviews, by Robert C. Platt.
"The Complete HyperCard Handbook" by Danny
Goodman (1987 Bantam Computer Books, 720 pp., $29.95)
This book is such a hot seller that copies at each of the B. Dalton's
sold out within three days of the book hitting the shelves!
HyperCard is a hypertext manager for the Macintosh which
Apple will now bundle with each new Macintosh as system
software. "Hypertext" in turn is a data base-like concept pioneered by Ted Nelson in a book Literary Machines, which I
reviewed in the August 1983 WAP Journal. Hypertext links
individual frames of information into a complex web of cross-references, unlike a normal book which is linear from the first
page to the last HyperCard implements this concept through a
me card metaphor. Each frame is a card that is the shape of an
original Mac screen. The user can navigate between frames
according to cross-references developed by the author. Cross-references can be symbolized by icons (called buttons.) In
addition, cards can be retrieved using a "find" command in the
message window in a manner similar to that of a classic data
base.
Goodman was brought into Apple's HyperCard project at an
early stage, and it is no accident that his book is out simultaneously with the product's release. In fact, his book is available
before the beta version of a promised Inside HyperCard reference book for programmers. The downside is that Goodman is
a bit of a gushing HyperCard evangelist. Along this line, the
book includes a gushing forward by John Sculley and a 12 page
interview with HyperCard's creator Bill Atkinson.
The book devotes most of its pages to the introductory levels
of HyperCard--the browsing and authoring levels. In my
opinion, Goodman's treatment of HyperTalk, the HyperCard
programming language could have used more complete examples. Certainly Goodman does a much better job of presenting
authoring than does the Apple manual that is bundled with the
HyperCard product. In fairness, I note that Apple promises to
distribute a HyperCard Technical Reference through APDA.
However, Goodman should have expanded Part 4, "Applying
HyperCard and HyperTalk." That section gives the complete
listing for a Corporate Directory (a locator map system with
"hard links"); a Telephone Logbook (a rolodex which also
records individual calls); an Attorney Time Sheet; a "To do" list;
a metric/English measurement converter; and a project planner.
Although these examples are impressive, I fear that a number of
programming subtleties are not covered.
On the whole, I recommend the book, despite its hefty price.
But be aware that the serious HyperTalk
programmer will need more documentation than just this book.
(Ed. Note: Rich Wasserstrom has arranged a group purchase on this book and
it is available at the office for $17.95 plus
tax, while the supply lasts.)
Data Bases
Bill Amon on 09/03
At 4:30 pm today (Thursday, Sept. 3), Ashton-Tate issued a news
release indicating that dBASE Mac is now shipping. The last beta
version was 1.0x1l4. I understand that they already have an
order backlog of 10,000 copies! I asked about what the final
version's performance situation was--according to product
development, there are substantial improvements. I'll be getting
my copy within a week or two and I'll let you all know! For David
Gursky--yes--NOW we can start our testing. I have already
received HyperCard and 4th Dimension--I really think they
should be included. Most data base applications I firmly believe
could be done easily in HyperCard--I love it! Well, let's get on
with it.
Bill Baldridge on 08/28
Received the Course Builder demo disk today--pretty fast! The
interesting thing is it was written by William C. Appleton, of
World Builder fame, if memory serves... Anyway, I haven't
really played around with it yet (too busy with HyperCard right
now), but so far my main criticism is they use Macintalk to voice
text and dialogs; [...]
HyperCard
Bill Baldridge on 08/30
Describing HyperCard in one sentence is as easy as writing the
Gettysburg Address on a 22 cent stamp with a dull pencil. A
simple description would be an application with which a user
may build a stack of cards--each card storing information in any
computer retrievable format (i.e., graphic, alphanumeric, digital,
etc.). Any part of any card may be tied to any part of any other
card by a relation--the relation to be defined by the creator or
user (at lower levels) using "scripts." Scripts allow specific tasks
to be performed by a button, field, card, or stack (here presented
in inverted hierarchy). Lastly, any STACK may be tied to any
other stack by these relations... The mind boggles.
Jeffrey Barnes on 08/30
I have pretty well finished reading the HyperCard manual and
have "fooled around" with the application a bit. I bought it
because I didn't know any way to find out what it was other than
to get the thing. It is my opinion that HyperCard can be referred
to, among other things, as:
1 - A high level language specifically designed for the Mac.
I have programmed the Mac in BASIC and C and I would liken
such programming as similar to programming graphic workstations hooked to mainframes--TEDIOUS! It's sort of like playing the banjo--something I would like to know how to do and then not do it.
2 - A very rich job control language for the Mac. I would liken
it to DCL on a VAX in the sense that the lexical functions in VAX
DCL are equivalent to the graphics "hooks" in hypercard.
3 - A sort of "graphics database language". The capability to
"link" cards to other stacks/cards really opens up many possibilities.
4 - Has the promise of being a really useful and efficient
macro generator for the Mac. I have TEMPO and TOUCH-NGO and consider them very crude. I am hoping for better things
with Hypercard. In short, I think that all of the packages for the
Mac that I am familiar with, such as MS WORD, are merely a
standard computer application written for the Mac. Admittedly,
such packages follow the Macintosh interface and that is a great
leap forward but any standard interface puts the burden on
development programmers.
The real test will be--how complex an application will Hypercard allow a programmer to construct.
Rick Stickle on 08/30
Bill, I don't believe this--I got HyperCard at Clinton yesterday
and signed on tonight to suggest that a Hypercard section be set
up! I now see there are just some people that you can't get the
jump on.
[... and much more discussion about HyperCard from the WAP BBS ...]
HyperCard SIG by Robert C Platt
WAP is organizing a HyperCard SIG for persons interested
in exploring Apple's new hypertext driver. The group will focus
upon available stackware and the HyperTalk programming language. In order to identify potential members and what they want
in a SIG, two organizational meetings will be held at the end of
the regular WAP meetings on Saturday, September 26 and
October 24. A permanent meeting location and time will be
selected at the October session. See the review of Danny
Goodman's HyperCard Handbook elsewhere in this issue for
more information on HyperCard.