7On Tue, 2 Aug 2016 10:23:54 +0300 Richmond<richmondmathew...@gmail.com> wrote:
Somewhere deep inside one of my backup disks I have a feeling there is a version of RunRev/LC for DOS . . . . There's certainly a version of Metacard. It might be "fun" to take it/them for a trot with FreeDOS. R.
Hi Richmond, Somewhere in the depths of one of my computers I still have a copy of "HyperPad" (by Brightbill & Roberts), the first (and only?) Hypercard clone for DOS. I experimented with HyperPad for some time, used it among other authoring tools in a programming workshop at the Technical University of Madras, where I also presented as an example a stack about "Basic Hindi Grammar: Verbs". Of course it was not possible to attach Devanagari to this DOS-stack, but I later ported it to Metacard and Revolution. This stack and other Hindi-related stacks are still available from here, if you should be interested. HyperPad had a number of interesting features missing in Hypercard, Metacard, and still not having been added to LiveCode. On April 13, 2001, I had written to <metac...@lists.runrev.com>, subject: "Metacard anniversary":
(snip)
With x-talk languages I started with Hypercard and HyperPad, moved to Toolbook because of Windows, looked at Omo, worked with Supercard and Spinnaker's "Plus", and finally arrived at MetaCard. HyperPad appeared in 1989 and was - as far as I know - the first Hypercard clone for the DOS-world. It was in a number of aspects a very much improved clone of Hypercard. The big problem was that it was a pure DOS program and that Brightbill&Roberts unfortunately never succeeded to produce a Windows version. HyperPad was dead by 1995. The first thing worth mentioning about HyperPad was its wonderful documentation, two volumes of nearly 400 pages each (a "User Guide" and the "PadTalk Reference") that left almost no questions open, partly because for each instance of the PadTalk language there were clear practical examples how to use the language in a given context. In the six years that HyperPad was supported by Brightbill&Roberts I approached them about three times about issues I had difficulties with. HyperPad had a clear, organized user interface, could be easily connected to databases, and could be extended with "extensions" (simlar to xcmds and dlls) - which again was elaborated in the documentation. PadTalk contained a standard-deviation function - back in 1989 - a feature Scott included this month in Metacard 2.4. Two other "progressive" examples of the PadTalk language: - There was a "trim" function, very useful for creating educational software, that deleted leading and trailing spaces of user input. - "lines" and "items" had features different from other x-talk languages, including Metacard, e.g. the scriptline put "something" after last line of... would create a new line without having to add "CR&", putting something before or after an item would likewise create a new item without having to add ","&. This made scripting in many instances easier and comfortable. Of course, you could always put something on the same line by then adding " put something after last word (last item, last char) of line x", but the number of occasions where you have to create a new line or item are surely much more frequent than adding something on the same line. So far part of a nostalgic look back at HyperPad.-- To come back to the subject of this message: I support those that suggest approaches to broaden the basis of Metacard. The 10th anniversary of Metacard (is that correct?) would be one more reason for taking steps in that direction. Regards, Wilhelm Sanke
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