I must say that in my opinion:
1. the HyperCard community in general bears a large part of the responsibility for whatever prejudices against xTalks exist among professional software developers,
2. ignorant software reviewers played a part, and
3. HyperCard was a victim of its own success.
Let's discuss 2 & 3 first, as #1 basically results from the community's reaction to them.
2. In my experience, software reviewers are writers, not developers, and their reviews are rarely done in a depth that would qualify them to proclaim any real knowledge or understanding of the product they review. When HyperCard was introduced, reviewers quickly & universally proclaimed it slow and a memory hog, COMPARED TO SOFTWARE THEY KNEW THAT DIDN'T SUPPORT GRAPHICS, SOUNDS, VISUAL EFFECTS, etc. The comparison was unfair & unfounded; but it was obvious (like the "Run Rev has a fatal flaw: its Quit button is under the File menu on OSX" B/S).
3. Because HyperCard enabled non-programmers to create useful (to the creator) software, a plethora of "amateurish" stacks appeared on AOL and elsewhere. This lead to the ridicule of HyperCard by people who conveniently ignored the fact that the creators of those stack were non-professionals who could have produced NOTHING if given a C compiler or even a Basic interpreter.
1. In reaction to 2 & 3, the HyperCard community took a defensive posture, and much bandwidth was used discussing how to hide the fact that one's application was HyperCard-based.
I believe this is exactly the wrong reaction. XTalks have many advantages compared to other development platforms; and we should be pro-active in making the software development community aware of these rather than cringing if we are associated with the "HyperCard scourge."
Have a C programmer show you his/her app. Now ask, "What happens to your app if you change a line in this library routine?" When the person gets through describing the process of linking and redistributing x MB of application files, say "Gee, all I have to do is replace the library file and every app that uses the library picks up the change...
and BTW, I can change libraries on-the-fly at runtime, can't you?"
There are many good reasons for a professional developer to select xTalks as development platforms. We should be promoting them and challenging reviewers & others who ignorantly spread inaccurate or incomplete information, rather than apologizing for, or hiding, our HyperCard roots...
...or let the ignorant & misinformed select a different platform and compete with us where we have the advantage. :{`)
--
Rob Cozens CCW, Serendipity Software Company http://www.oenolog.com/who.htm
"And I, which was two fooles, do so grow three; Who are a little wise, the best fooles bee."
from "The Triple Foole" by John Donne (1572-1631) _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
