Dear list
Over this last weekend I downloaded both Metacard and RealBasic. As a
competent Hypercard programmer, I would obviously prefer the XTalk of
Metacard. However, the presentation of Metacard is amateurish and
offputting. If it weren't for my Hypercard experience I would quickly write
off Metacard as junk and purchase RealBasic.
The first thing I wanted to do was to use the tutorials. RealBasic tutorial
was straightforward, attractive and successful. Metacard tutorial was none
of those things. Initially I couldn't even find it! The tutorial is
accessible via the mchelp.mc stack but doesn't appear anywhere else.
Wouldn't it be sensible to make it obvious that there is a tutorial hidden
somewhere within the downloaded stuff?
Card 2 of the application tutorial has instructions for opening the
Metacard menu bar BUT ONLY FOR UNIX AND WINDOWS! As far as I recall, I
downloaded the Mac version. I found by random clicking that clicking on the
words "Metacard menu bar" would open it. That hypertext or hot link is
indicated only by bold text. Surely if you want me to click on a link you
should make it look like a link. How about underlined colored text? That
would do it for me.
Now I have got the "Metacard menu bar *" visible (don't know what the
asterisk is for). Why not try a bit more random clicking? It worked for me
last time. Well, when I clicked the arrow button I got into a mode where I
could move the buttons around, but I couldn't get back to the browse (?
hand) tool. It then seemed sensible to close the Metacard menu bar and
start again. I clicked the close box and declined the offer to save my
changes. However, when I reopened the Metacard menu bar I was again in edit
mode! The titlebar of the Metacard menu bar is now hidden behind my
menubar! I am stuck and can go no further in the tutorial.
If I persist, how many more of these hurdles should I expect to fall on?
This definitely a big turnoff. So are the ugly (Unix-like?) buttons and
dialog boxes. After lurking this list for a long time I thought that I was
tready to start playing around with Metacard, but I find that your program
interface and tutorial are not ready for me.
The Mac is a pleasant platform to work on because application developers
are made to take responsibility for the drudgery of getting it right and
consistent. I take care of the interface of the programs that I develop:
you should take care of Metacard.
Michael J. Lew
Lecturer
Department of Pharmacology
The University of Melbourne
Parkville 3010
Victoria
Australia
Phone +63 8344 8304
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