I'm rather biased, but I think HyperTalk was mostly a mistake. A well-written HyperTalk script can be clear for a novice to read and (hopefully) modify, but thi

I'm rather biased, but I think HyperTalk was mostly a mistake. A well-written HyperTalk script can be clear for a novice to read and (hopefully) modify, but this comes at the cost of making it an intensely longwinded, fiddly, and ambiguous language to program with and to implement. The focus on text manipulation as the primary "data handling" paradigm is very convenient for some problems, but the lack of proper lists and associative structures is a liability for complex programs. Nevertheless, HyperCard on the whole was still enough to be highly empowering to a very broad userbase, which cannot be understated. It is difficult to quantify the amount of productivity and enjoyment that can be given to users simply by allowing them to make minor changes to personal software themselves, even if the bulk of the work was done by some "real programmer".