Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!gatech!ncsuvx!mcnc!ecsvax!ruslan
From: ruslan@ecsvax.UUCP (Robin C. LaPasha)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Ultra-Card/Browser Bugs
Summary: help via crossover from H*Talk
Message-ID: <7471@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 11 Aug 89 19:40:08 GMT
References: <21232@louie.udel.EDU>  <660@laic.UUCP>
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 76

In article <660@laic.UUCP>, darin@nova.laic.uucp (Darin Johnson) writes:
> In article  portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) writes:
> >[deleted]
> I took the plunge and bought UltraCard.  It is a lot faster than
> the demo version I saw, especially display-wise.  Could be lots better,
> but a big improvement of the demo.
According to the author, the current rev of the browser/demo on
Compuserve is 1.11.
> 
> Big drawback - lack of good documentation.  The manual is disorganized
> and needed some proofreading.  It states that better documentation is
> in the TheManual stack (since hypertext, etc. is better for documentation).
> However, it tells almost nothing new, and is not very big (6 chapters
> of 4 topics each - each topic half a screen).  Supposedly, if you
> read through the help stack fully, etc. you can get more info.  The
> list of function/commands is available.  I assume it is incomplete
> since it doesn't discuss ARexx.  The only place ARexx is discussed
> is in the "more..." frame, and only a tiny bit (enough to get you
> going, no examples).  No registration card or info found, although
> there is a BBS in Monterrey, CA.  Also, no docs on how to use the
> sample stacks.  The address-book was fairly obvious, but the Calendar
> isn't (from the source, it appears you can't put notes for dates
> in another month but I could be wrong).  The Tutorial stack is pretty
> good though (tutorial for creating stacks).  I gurued a bit too.
> 
1. Documentation - I mentioned that to Mike Lehman; he said that
he was looking at some H*Talk manuals as he was designing things.
So, "except for chunk expressions" (which I gather means text
strings?) the UltraTalk commands are similar to their analogs
(with _similar_ but not identical names) in H*Talk.  He said he
liked "the Shafer book" (which could be _HyperTalk_Programming_
or _Understanding_HyperTalk_, both by Dan Shafer, ranging from
$18-25.)

2. ARexx.  Well, I don't know if ARexx is discussed in documentation
for other ARexx-hooked programs... Is nothing in ARexx's own docs?
(I don't have ARexx yet, but it's one of those important-sounding
things I might get to even _before_ 1.4 comes out.)

3. Calendar.  Can you perhaps copy the _frame_ so that you can use
the date note-objects in another month?  I'm just guessing from 
the browser/demo.  I'm a bit new at this hypermedia stuff too.

> Also, the manual really tries to push the BBS, saying that many more
> sample stacks, etc. are there.  Personally, I would rather have an
> extra disk with samples, full-fledged manual, etc.  This would
> be much cheaper to me than the BBS (time-wise too, with only one
> phone, I can't download large files when someone might call, 1200
> baud is silly when I get USENET at 19K, BBS's are usually busy, etc.).

I would also like some mail-based stack swapping of sorts.
Supposedly a collection of stuff is on Compuserve and PeopleLink,
(including the current browser/demo), including stacks.  I have
also sent my own request to Mike Lehman that there be an inexpensive
way of getting stacks.
> 
> Of course, I expect it to get better with age.  The manual hints on
> things to come (compiler), and documentation can only improve.  A
> second disk would really help though.

If you still have questions, it turns out that Mike Lehman's
compuserve-via-gateway address is 76164.1764@compuserve.com.
Be prepared to wait a few days for an answer, though - they're
busy, I guess. 
> 
> Darin Johnson (leadsv!laic!darin@pyramid.pyramid.com)
> 	We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.


(Oh, durn, I guess I'll be paranoid and say that HyperTalk is
a term/trademark/whatever probably owned by somebody connected
legally to Apple...you get the idea.)
-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Robin LaPasha               |Deep-Six your
ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu    |files with VI! ;^) ;^) ;^)