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From: eirik@tekcrl.TEK.COM (Eirik Fuller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Hypercard: what's it really worth?
Message-ID: <2116@tekcrl.TEK.COM>
Date: Mon, 30-Nov-87 12:04:32 EST
Article-I.D.: tekcrl.2116
Posted: Mon Nov 30 12:04:32 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Dec-87 19:49:30 EST
References: <6956@ut-ngp.UUCP> <3410@husc6.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: eirik@crl.TEK.COM (Eirik Fuller)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 42
Keywords: Hypercard smalltalk
Summary: Hypertalk like smalltalk?  No way!

In article <3410@husc6.harvard.edu> fry@huma1.UUCP (David Fry) writes:
>In article <6956@ut-ngp.UUCP> osmigo@ut-ngp.UUCP (Ron Morgan) writes:
> ...
>
>>3. Hypertalk is somewhat overrated. True, it's "easier" than C or Pascal, but
>>   in no sense of the word is it a "programming language" in the first place.
>	Exactly what sense of the word (sic) "programming
>language" are thinking about?  HyperTalk is descended from a
>respected, high level language (SmallTalk) that is very
>easy to program in.  If it's not a programming language, what
>do you think it is?
>

NO NO NO NO NO NO ...

Oops, excuse me, I got carried away ...

Tell me, have you ever seen smalltalk?  Have you programmed in
smalltalk?  I find it far easier to believe that you speak from the
depths of your ignorance on this one, than that you have really used
smalltalk and still believe this.

Smalltalk is several orders of magnitude better as a programming
language than hypertalk.  I would possibly begin to believe otherwise
if hypercard were implemented in hypertalk, the way that the smalltalk
environment is implemented in smalltalk.

The essential difference between hypercard and smalltalk is simple.
Hypercard is a user environment with something like programming
thrown in as an (admittedly useful) afterthought, while smalltalk is
pure and simple a programming environment, whose user interface is in
some sense an afterthought.

What is hypertalk if not a programming language?  It's a useful hack.

> ...
>	Frankly, your comments make me wonder if you've even used
>HyperCard.
>
> ...

Ditto, except substitute HyperCard with smalltalk.