I really enjoyed that insider look also. Can anybody pick it up when
hypercard went back to apple and we were supposed to have version 3.0?
Jack
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Swindell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: How to use Revolution <use-revolution@lists.runrev.com>
Sent: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 12:35:59 -0800
Subject: Re: Why did HyperCard wither away? [was: Re: Why is
Konfabulator 'Pretty?']
Bill,
Thank you for the fresh insider perspective! Perhaps I can finally put
to rest my conspiracy theories. (I hate it when that happens.)
e
I guess I assumed the leadership at Apple controlled the robustness
and goals of the teams involved in product development, even at Claris.
The HyperCard team apparently lacked in both areas.
Thanks for the perspective.
Mark
On Dec 9, 2005, at 6:13 PM, Bill Marriott wrote:
> Well, I had the good fortune to be at Claris during the HyperCard
> transition. I knew the development team and the product managers >
well. I
> don't think it was anything so deliberate/nefarious as you surmise.
>
> - Claris didn't know how to make money on a program that had been >
given away
> for free. The demotion of the "free" HyperCard to a "player" and >
starting to
> charge for the full version ended up upsetting/alienating a lot of
> customers.
>
> - In those days, there was free, unlimited, "red carpet" technical >
support.
> You could call in with just about any question and the support >
group would
> go to the ends of the earth to solve it for you. (This included >
writing
> scripts and debugging stacks.) With everyone from commercial >
developers to
> 11th graders calling in, HyperCard became one of the most expensive
products
> to support, surpassing even FileMaker Pro.
>
> - Key members of the Apple team that built HyperCard declined to >
move to
> Claris and the product just wasn't upgraded quickly enough or
smartly
> enough. It took forever to get their act together under the >
reorganization
> chaos. Not enough features were added, and the ones that were often
were not
> done in a way that pleased customers.
>
> - No one knew how to position it within the Claris product line. >
FileMaker
> was also the chief moneymaker, and there was some question why >
someone would
> use FileMaker if HyperCard was able to do the same things (easy >
reports, for
> example). There was actually a lot of contention for a while >
whether to use
> HyperCard or FileMaker as the engine for the technical knowledgebase
> (FileMaker won).
>
> - As a producer of software primarily targeted at consumers and
small
> businesses, Claris didn't have the depth of experience to create a
> developer-oriented tool.
>
> - The HyperCard team tended not to integrate well with the rest of
the
> company. They didn't eat lunch at the same tables. :) I think this >
prevented
> a lot of discussion, crossover ideas, and innovative thinking from
> occurring.
>
> - HyperCard was not making a profit; there were therefore no >
substantial
> funds for marketing it. Combined with all the other factors above, >
other
> companies (like SuperCard) stepped in and started to compete for the
> HyperCard audience. Market share of HyperCard fell dramatically.
>
> After HyperCard went back to Apple there may have been some
additional
> machinations that I'm not aware of. However,
>
> 1) The Claris spinout was the beginning of the end for HyperCard as
far as
> I'm concerned. It's not that Claris was a bad company (quite the >
opposite);
> it's just that insufficient strategic consideration was given to >
how it
> would grow there, and it probably should never have left Apple
anyway.
>
> 2) I never once at Claris heard the notion that HyperCard stacks >
reflected
> poorly on the image of the Macintosh. Quite the opposite.
>
> 3) No one -- except a few crazies no one listened to -- saw the >
potential
> for HyperCard to impact the Web (and vice versa). "So close yet so >
far."
> (sigh.) HyperCard's paradigm was mired in floppy-disk distribution
of
> stacks... a bandwidth-friendly, streaming, component-ized,
multi-user,
> client-server world was simply not envisioned. By 1993/1994 the Web
was
> clearly "the next big thing" and HyperCard missed the boat.
>
> Bill
>
> "Mark Swindell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> I think they were ok with HyperCard staying a fun toy for >>
amateurs, but
>> they didn't want to blur the line by giving it full-blown >>
professional UI
>> potential. Then their platform would have been populated by half->>
baked
>> applications that worked poorly but which could have appeared >>
superficially
>> to have been produced by professionals and would have helped >>
define the Mac
>> "experience" as amateurish. That would have been bad for business
and
>> their reputation.
>>
>> DTP programs used the computer to produce docs, for good or bad, >>
but they
>> "weren't" the computer in the same way a Hypercard stack "became"
the
>> computer while it was in use. Same for web pages, later on. >> They
were
>> documents, not applications.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> On Dec 9, 2005, at 3:03 PM, Bill Marriott wrote:
>>
>>> You mean, like how they abandoned desktop publishing because of
all the
>>> horrid newsletters that sprung into existence? And how the web >>>
never took
>>> off because of all the ugly sites? :)
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>> "Mark Swindell"
>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> wrote in message
>>> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> HC's rep was so tarnished by all the unsightly crap put out >>>>
there by
>>>> "the
>>>> rest of us" that they didn't want it associated in any >>>>
professional
>>>> context with their upscale brand identity. Sure, there were >>>>
nuggets of
>>>> gold among the piles of HyperCard coal, but even they were >>>>
covered in
>>>> black (and white) dust and hard to find.
>>>> -Mark
>>
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