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I keep trying to understand why Hypercard was good. Although I agree with the points in the article, I guess/think/suspect that there was more to it than that.

I keep trying to understand why Hypercard was good. Although I agree with the points in the article, I guess/think/suspect that there was more to it than that. One of the things that struck me when I fired up Hypercard.sheepvm was that what came out of Hypercard is very different than what comes out of html/css/javascript. The same way that if you paint with a palette knife versus a paint brush, what comes out is different. As a thought experiment, since I am currently building a website, I started using Hypercard to mock up the web UI. It is immediately different. (Yes I know there is the black&white vs colors). Does anyone have any thoughts on that or why that would be?

bigiain 4y ago
> I keep trying to understand why Hypercard was good. I reckon it’s like the GUI version of BASIC. It was, as other comments point out, kinda toy-like, but in a good way as well as a bad way. It gave Mac users a way to “play” with their Mac and make it do their bidding in much the same way that BASIC interpreters built into pre-GUI home computers did. It was half way between magic and godlike power - at least for some people. It gave a very low barrier to entry feeling of “Oh, I get it now. I can make this machine do what I want it to do. I am in control now!” In my head, Director or Flash was the next equivalent tool in that niche.