FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Fourth World SuperCard Tools Go Open Source
Alliance with DevHQ Releases Free Tools and Source for Wetware Externals
and More
LOS ANGELES, 19 July, 1999, Year of the Rabbit
Fourth World announced today a strategic alliance with DevHQ to deliver
its popular line of SuperCard tools for free to the Open Source
community. Both source code and compiled externals, most complete with
sample projects, will be available for free download at a new section to
be added to the DevHQ site.
"We've been focusing our commercial product efforts on the Macintosh
developer community from the start," said Richard Gaskin, Ambassador of
Fourth World. "Working with developers has been a great way to meet
smart, motivated people doing a lot of interesting stuff. By delivering
our work to the Open Source community, we have the opportunity to see the
tools enhanced much more quickly than we could do alone, and we get to
meet a great many more cool people along the way."
Mark Lucas, author of ListMaster, Widget, the popular Wetware Externals
Collections, and a major contributor to the last few releases of
SuperCard itself, is very excited about the move to Open Source. "This
is the largest and most diverse collection of SuperCard-specific
externals in existence, and starting today it includes the C source, and
is completely FREE. It took me years of sleepless nights staring at
Macsbug to figure out how to do all this stuff, and until now I've never
been allowed to divulge these secrets to anyone. Between this and the
enhanced SuperCard Internals Toolbox (also available with C source),
SuperCard developers will have low-level access to the innards of their
favorite 4GL far beyond what is available in any competing authoring tool
on the Mac platform. IncWell's enlightened attitude toward sharing
technical information with customers is something I believe is long
overdue in this market, because serious development in a 4GL can be like
playing a violin wearing mittens unless there is a way to reach around
the tool and handle things directly when you need to. Now SuperCard lets
you do that pretty much at will, and this code shows how."
DevHQ is a comprehensive web site focusing on all aspects of Macintosh
development, with an emphasis on rapid application development tools.
"This is one of the greatest open source initiatives seen on the Mac in
recent years," said Chilton Webb, founder and president of DevHQ. "Just
releasing the externals as freeware gives SuperCard programmers
considerable advantages over other development environments on the
Macintosh. But giving external developers the source code will
undoubtedly spur the authoring of even more (and more powerful)
externals. DevHQ is proud to be a part of this."
Response to the announcement from the worldwide SuperCard community was
extremely supportive:
"For a decade, Mark Lucas and Richard Gaskin have made available many of
the most innovative and useful SuperCard tools to be found anywhere. To
open that cornucopia of source code to all developers is a bold step that
will surely result in a flowering of new and wonderful tools - and toys -
for us all."
- Andy Baird, New Jersey, USA
"We use SuperCard to develop business applications and have used products
from Mark Lucas for years. They provide reliable, easy to use ways of
extending the possibilities for our clients. Opening the source code for
such valuable products is a brave and visionary move by Mark. We think
it's a great move because it helps SC become more accepted as a
mainstream tool for business users. That opens the market for SC
developers, and has big side benefits for all SC users. The more accepted
SC becomes the more we all benefit."
- Paul Zahara, Managing Director Cedar Hill Pty. Ltd., Australia
"On it's own, SuperCard is a first-class development environment, but in
combination with Wetware and other Fourth World externals, SuperCard
becomes a powerhouse tool ready for the challenges of multimedia and
data-crunching projects. Not sure if SuperCard supports this or that
operation? Just turn to the scX or Wetware collection or another Fourth
World tool and you are bound to find a solution."
- David Hutchison, Lakewood Software, Ontario, Canada
"The adventure of PhotoCat -the picture cataloger- wouldn't have been
possible without the help of many of these great externals. We publish
PhotoCat in both French and English, and now we'll be able to translate
the XCMD error messages and customize features to be more consistent with
PhotoCat's interface."
- Thierry Maire, Switzerland
"Here at Yenco.com we use a variety of Fourth World and Wetware Inc.
Xternals in our shareware applications. IncWell SuperCard is a terrific
rapid application development tool and Fourth World and Wetware Inc.
Xternals provide a natural extension to SuperCard's capabilities which
allow us to deliver Mac shareware that's amazingly simple & simply
amazing! Our products would not be possible without these tools. We are
excited that Fourth World and Wetware Inc. are moving to an open source
distribution model as it will empower more people to create powerful and
reliable Xternals which continue to extend SuperCard's capabilities,
which in turn will make a whole new generation of SuperCard created
software products possible."
- Mike Yenco, Yenco.com, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA
"At MacUser magazine I use SuperCard all the time, for everything from
managing and running labs tests to making interfaces for subscriber CDs.
I use Wetware externals in virtually all of these projects. They help me
make things which make people's jaws drop - and quite frankly I'd be lost
without them. Releasing them as Open Source freeware is an astoundingly
positive move. Now more people will get the chance to see how powerful
SuperCard and the Wetware externals can be."
- Keith Martin, Technical Editor, MacUser magazine, England
The new headquarters for the Fourth World Open Source Alliance will be
hosted by DevHQ at <http://www.devhq.com/4w/>. Migration of the
SuperCard tools to this site begins today, and is expected to take a few
weeks to complete.
Fourth World designs and develops multimedia applications for all major
operating systems and the World Wide Web. Based in downtown Los Angeles,
Fourth World offers more than ten years' experience in rapid application
development, prototyping, usability testing, workflow automation, and web
development. <http://www.fourthworld.com>.
Wetware Incorporated has been providing interface design and custom
programming services since 1989. We specialize in the design,
prototyping, and user acceptance testing of public-access systems such as
ATMs, kiosks, web sites, and online services. We also develop custom
Macintosh software, including applications, defprocs, XCMDs, and all
things SuperCard. <http://www.fourthworld.net/wetware/> or
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
DevHQ.com is dedicated to improving software development on the Macintosh
platform. This is done by providing forums for discussion, libraries of
code, tutorials on complex programming topics, interviews with key
players in the software industry, open source software initiatives, and
the Internet's largest indexed source code search engine. If you want to
learn to program your Macintosh, DevHQ wants to teach you.
<http://www.devhq.com/>
###
(c) 1999 Fourth World. All rights reserved worldwide. Fourth World is a
trademark of Fourth World. SuperCard is a registered trademark of Incwell
DMG LLC. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
