CompileIt: A Hypercard compiler written in Hypercard (2007)

What a pleasant surprise to see this on HN this morning as I wrote this article about 15 years ago! I had planned to do a whole series about the early mac but life got in the way :( There was something really special about the early macs (system 6 & 7). Yes they were buggy and slow but the UI was such a massive improvement over anything else. It also felt more "personal" in a way that I haven't experienced since. I wish younger devs could go back with me and experience the excitement and possibilities of those times. Hypercard especially made programming so accessible. Credit to Tom Pittman - his compiler allowed you to develop in hypercard but distribute a binary - very useful.

You can use CompileIt! here:

https://archive.org/details/hypercard_compileit-251-working-...

Similarly, TASC (The Applesoft Compiler) is a compiler for Apple II BASIC written in Apple II BASIC! <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31138214>

Some quotes:

> If you must use Unix, Apple's AU/X was arguably the least painful way to do it (much easier to use than OS X), but even AU/X was so bad it didn't last long.

> The Mac OS gave my productivity an order of magnitude boost; everything since then (even Mac OS versions after 6) only goes backwards.

His design for an OS:

http://www.ittybittycomputers.com/IttyBitty/OSblue.htm