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].
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 Macintosh 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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