Thanks for that clear discourse. I think the true story behind the demise of Hypercard is very interesting. I'd like to see it fleshed-out a little more to a full story especially with some of the interesting facts such as the fast indexing code story and other history. In fact such a story (the rise and fall of a program no one could classify) has a lot of potential.
On 12/9/05 10:13 PM, "Bill Marriott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well, I had the good fortune to be at Claris during the HyperCard > transition. I knew the development team and the product managers well. I > don't think it was anything so deliberate/nefarious as you surmise. > > - Claris didn't know how to make money on a program that had been given away > for free. The demotion of the "free" HyperCard to a "player" and starting to > charge for the full version ended up upsetting/alienating a lot of > customers. > > - In those days, there was free, unlimited, "red carpet" technical support. > You could call in with just about any question and the support group would > go to the ends of the earth to solve it for you. (This included writing > scripts and debugging stacks.) With everyone from commercial developers to > 11th graders calling in, HyperCard became one of the most expensive products > to support, surpassing even FileMaker Pro. > > - Key members of the Apple team that built HyperCard declined to move to > Claris and the product just wasn't upgraded quickly enough or smartly > enough. It took forever to get their act together under the reorganization > chaos. Not enough features were added, and the ones that were often were not > done in a way that pleased customers. > > - No one knew how to position it within the Claris product line. FileMaker > was also the chief moneymaker, and there was some question why someone would > use FileMaker if HyperCard was able to do the same things (easy reports, for > example). There was actually a lot of contention for a while whether to use > HyperCard or FileMaker as the engine for the technical knowledgebase > (FileMaker won). > > - As a producer of software primarily targeted at consumers and small > businesses, Claris didn't have the depth of experience to create a > developer-oriented tool. > > - The HyperCard team tended not to integrate well with the rest of the > company. They didn't eat lunch at the same tables. :) I think this prevented > a lot of discussion, crossover ideas, and innovative thinking from > occurring. > > - HyperCard was not making a profit; there were therefore no substantial > funds for marketing it. Combined with all the other factors above, other > companies (like SuperCard) stepped in and started to compete for the > HyperCard audience. Market share of HyperCard fell dramatically. > > After HyperCard went back to Apple there may have been some additional > machinations that I'm not aware of. However, > > 1) The Claris spinout was the beginning of the end for HyperCard as far as > I'm concerned. It's not that Claris was a bad company (quite the opposite); > it's just that insufficient strategic consideration was given to how it > would grow there, and it probably should never have left Apple anyway. > > 2) I never once at Claris heard the notion that HyperCard stacks reflected > poorly on the image of the Macintosh. Quite the opposite. > > 3) No one -- except a few crazies no one listened to -- saw the potential > for HyperCard to impact the Web (and vice versa). "So close yet so far." > (sigh.) HyperCard's paradigm was mired in floppy-disk distribution of > stacks... a bandwidth-friendly, streaming, component-ized, multi-user, > client-server world was simply not envisioned. By 1993/1994 the Web was > clearly "the next big thing" and HyperCard missed the boat. > > Bill > > "Mark Swindell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote in message > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> I think they were ok with HyperCard staying a fun toy for amateurs, but >> they didn't want to blur the line by giving it full-blown professional UI >> potential. Then their platform would have been populated by half-baked >> applications that worked poorly but which could have appeared superficially >> to have been produced by professionals and would have helped define the Mac >> "experience" as amateurish. That would have been bad for business and >> their reputation. >> >> DTP programs used the computer to produce docs, for good or bad, but they >> "weren't" the computer in the same way a Hypercard stack "became" the >> computer while it was in use. Same for web pages, later on. They were >> documents, not applications. >> >> Mark >> >> On Dec 9, 2005, at 3:03 PM, Bill Marriott wrote: >> >>> You mean, like how they abandoned desktop publishing because of all the >>> horrid newsletters that sprung into existence? And how the web never took >>> off because of all the ugly sites? :) >>> >>> Bill >>> >>> "Mark Swindell" >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>> wrote in message >>> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>> HC's rep was so tarnished by all the unsightly crap put out there by >>>> "the >>>> rest of us" that they didn't want it associated in any professional >>>> context with their upscale brand identity. Sure, there were nuggets of >>>> gold among the piles of HyperCard coal, but even they were covered in >>>> black (and white) dust and hard to find. >>>> -Mark >> >> _______________________________________________ >> use-revolution mailing list >> [email protected] >> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your >> subscription preferences: >> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > use-revolution mailing list > [email protected] > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution | | | )_) )_) )_) )___))___))___)\ )____)____)_____)\\ _____|____|____|____\\\__ -------\ /--------- http://www.bluewatermaritime.com ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ 24 hour cell: (787) 378-6190 fax: (787) 809-8426 Blue Water Maritime P.O. 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