HyperTalk

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HyperTalk

A verbose semicompiled language by Bill Atkinson and Dan Winkler, with loose syntax and high readability.

HyperTalk uses HyperCard as an object management system, development environment and interface builder. Programs are organised into "stacks" of "cards", each of which may have "buttons" and "fields". All data storage is in zero-terminated strings in fields, local, or global variables; all data references are through "chunk expressions" of the form:

'last item of background field "Name List" of card ID 34217'.

Flow of control is event-driven and uses message-passing among scripts that are attached to stack, background, card, field and button objects.

Apple Computer has taken back distribution and maintenance of HyperCard from Claris Corporation

["HyperTalk Language Reference Manual", A-W 1988].

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

HyperCard

An early Mac application development system from Apple that was one of the first visual tools for building hyperlinked applications. "Stacks" of "cards" were built that held text, graphics, sound and video with links between them. Complex routines could be embedded in the cards using the HyperTalk programming language.

The HyperCard program had to be resident in the computer to run the stack (the program). Although HyperCard compilers were available from third parties, a runtime engine was eventually included in the stack so that HyperCard did not have to be installed on the target machine. HyperCard came out in 1987, and although it was used to create myriad applications, and many programmers loved it, Apple stopped enhancing it after the turn of the century and stopped selling it in 2004. See hypertext and LiveCode.

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I then ported the rulebases both as separate entities and as one entire overview to metaCard's Transcript scripting language, which was derived from Pascal / HyperTalk and also uses quasi-English for its instruction.

Using WYSH computer programs to model the Alien Tort Claims Act

That experience, together with the history of programming languages during the past 30 years--from Basic to Pascal, from Logo to Smalltalk, from HyperTalk to Lingo--convinced us we could never come up with a language that would work for novices.

Novice Programming Comes of Age

Procedures were programmed in the HyperTalk programming language of the Hypercard system.

Computer anxiety: a comparison of pen-based personal digital assistants, conventional computer and paper assessment of mood and performance

* "To tap the power of HyperCard will require an investment in learning HyperTalk, its programming language."

The differential effects of software training previews on training outcomes

Some tools and languages, such as HyperTalk and Visual Basic, indicate that many people will become programmers if the barriers are lowered to learning the language.

The library and wired communities in rural areas

The programming was done in HyperTalk and SuperTalk.

Assessing children's social skills using video-based microcomputer technology

Languages such as "Hypertalk" (Apple Computer, Cupertino, Calif.) and "Plus" (Spinnaker Software, Cambridge, Mass.) allow a programmer with even limited experience to write complex programs that would have been very difficult to write with the earlier linear languages.

A computer program to aid in learning differentials and morphologies

In 2nd grade, children leam to program using Logo and HyperTalk |TM~.

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow: what we've learned

* Introduction to Aldus Persuasion * Introduction to Passport Producer Pro * Introduction to Macromedia Director * Advanced Macromedia Director * Introduction to interText * Introduction to Apple Media Tool * Introduction to Macromedia Authorware Professional * Introduction to HyperTalk

Taking a second look

It is somewhat of a moot point to argue over what HyperCard might have been, but it was indeed possible to create HyperCard stacks without having to touch HyperTalk (the scripting language inside HyperCard).