by Mike Smith LAMIR Software Corporation The hot word in programming these days is modularity. HyperCard is a good example of an application that is designed to use modules of code written in another language to extend the limited functionality of HyperTalk: hence the names of these modules (XCMDs, or external commands, and XFNCs, or external […]
by Dan Shafer Browse. The lowest level of access to HyperCard. All you can do if you’ve been relegated to the ranks of the “browsers,” is go from one card to another. Open a new stack. Go Home. Not much else. So, you’d think the go command would be the simplest, most straightforward word in […]
Elon GasparPresident of Bright Star Technologies, and developer of HyperAnimator Joseph MatthewsHyperAnimator Programmer The future evolution of the Macintosh interface may well include something Apple calls an “anthropomorphic agent” — a software-based lifeform that would reside in your computer, talking and listening to you, acting for you at your behest. Such an agent would be […]
How and Why to Use External Commands and Functions By Christopher Watson It is now evident that a new trend in programming has attracted a significant part of the Macintosh community. In growing numbers, novice programmers use HyperCard and its built-in language, HyperTalk, as a springboard toward involvement in higher levels of development. This makes […]
By Dennis Austin It takes a lot of planning to put together a memory policy, and you never get it right the first time. No matter how much time you spend, it always seems you could be using memory more efficiently. The memory manager offers a wealth of tools for its control. The grow zone […]
Programming in C By Allen Holub Most Mac compilers claim to support the ANSI C Standard, in fact they support a subset of ANSI. Among the features most often omitted from that subset are the new preprocessor directives. The program described in this article corrects this problem to some extent. It is a C preprocessor […]
“Copyright law does not provide a publisher with any protection against possible law suits brought by users who are unhappy with the performance of the software or who have somehow been damaged by a serious problem with the software.“ by Paul GoodmanMacTech QuarterlySummer 1989 – Page 84 It’s finally finished. For the last two years […]
by Raines CohenMacTech QuarterlySummer 1989 – Page 127 Last January’s MacWorld Expo in San Francisco featured a number of announcements exciting to HyperCard developers. Some were notable in and of themselves, while some represent milestones in discussions that began long ago and are likely to continue for the forseeable future. The most talked about software […]
Michael C. Storrie-Lombardi, M.D.MacTech QuarterlySummer 1989 – Page 90 Smalltalk, the original object oriented programming (OOP) environment, has finally arrived as a full-blown Macintosh implementation thanks to Digitalk, Inc., at the extraordinarily reasonable price of $199. Early signs point toward Smalltalk/V Mac introducing OOP and Macintosh personal programming to a large group of people currently […]
By A.P.P.L.E. StaffMacTech QuarterlySummer 1989 — Page 95 Most of the personal computer community recognizes Smalltalk as the brainchild of the enormously creative Learning Research Group led by Alan Kay at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. Computer science historians will recognize Smalltalk characteristics with roots in Simula, LISP, and SketchPad. Smalltalk has followed the powerful […]
by Anna O’Connell and Doug HousemanMacTech QuarterlySummer 1989 – Page 105 “The rollout is the product’s transition from vapor to reality.” “One program shipped recently was written on Mac II’s and tested only on Pluses. The result was the makers didn’t know that the program didn’t run on the SE.” “The size of your market […]
# 3COM 604th Dimension 36 A A/UX 18, 36, 67, 112 A0, 76A5, 19, 76, 79-81, 102Abaq, 107Ada, 42, 44, 45ADD BAR, 102ADD MENU, 102Adobe Systems, 38AI, 10, 11, 110-112,114-116Aldus, 60Amatek, 107Amiga 33 analog-to-digital, 35Ann Arbor Softworks, 156APDA 31Apollo, 112app4Evt, 70-73, 116, 117Apple, 11, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 33, 34-36, 38, 39, 58, 64-69, […]
by Mick O’NeilMac Tech QuarterlySpring 1989 – Page 50 As the Macintosh penetration of the corporate and small business market has accelerated, compatibility and connectivity with resident MS DOS software and systems has becomes increasingly important. Thus, multi-system software developers like Microsoft, Aldus, and Word Perfect Corporation have insured that their latest spreadsheets, desktop publishing software, […]
Essays on the near future by software wizards Dan Allen, Frank Alviani, Elon Gasper, Ted Johnson, Scott Knaster and Leonard Rosenthal. The Macintosh is now a mature product. As of January 1989 Macintosh is five years old. It has come a long way: from 128 KB of RAM to 8 MB, from 400 KB floppies […]
by Jim Salmons and Timlynn BabitskyJFS ConsultingMacTech QuarterlySpring 1989 – Page 52 The Gunakara Sun Systems Limited of Halifax, Nova Scotia, has released a new programming language and development environment that brings together three distinctly different and powerful computer science methodologies — object-oriented, dataflow and visual programming. No one of these is overwhelming by itself, […]
By Howard KatzMacTech QuarterlySpring 1989 – Page 28 During my last year of high school, I was initiated into the mysteries of male bonding and five-card stud by a older bachelor who resided on the second floor of the apartment building where I lived. I was seventeen, and for the most part, yes, it was […]
By Rick ThomasMacTech QuarterlySpring 1989 – Page 18 A key word in Apple’s vision for software development is “multi-tasking”. In the future, applications simply will not work with new versions of the Mac OS unless they are designed from the beginning to work cooperatively in a multi-application environment. Rumor has it that beginning with System […]
By Charles T. LukaszewskiSun Remarketing, Inc.MacTech QuarterlySpring 1989 — Page 54 Apple’s Lisa computer never had a chance. Its windows and mice were ahead of their time. A nice sports car cost less than a minimally-configured Lisa system. And the most significant obstacle, which shaped Lisa’s decline and recent return, was that Steve Jobs didn’t […]
By Randy LeonardMac Tech QuarterlySpring 1989 – Page 22 Object-oriented programming languages date back to the late 1960’s with the development of the language Simula-67 by Kristen Nygaard and Ole-Johan Dahl of the Norwegian Computing Center. More recent object-oriented languages include SmallTalk-80, C++ and Object Pascal. However, until only recently these languages have received little […]
By Dan ShaferMacTech QuarterlySpring 1989 — Page 50 In the past several weeks, I have become aware of several meta-language extensions to HyperTalk that seem to suggest some interesting ways in which Our Favorite Language might be used in the future. I developed one of them for use in a specific project, another came to […]