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HyperCard was one of those rare products (along with Excel and FileMaker Pro) that made people into programmers without them knowing it. It was astonishing what

HyperCard was one of those rare products (along with Excel and FileMaker Pro) that made people into programmers without them knowing it. It was astonishing what people were able to put together in HyperCard, and how much sadness there was when Apple finally axed it.

rbanffy 12y ago
A baby unicorn dies every time someone builds an overly complex Excel spreadsheet that should actually be a program.
- te_chris 12y ago
  Yes, why should people solve problems they have themselves in ways that disagree with our aesthetic?
  - rbanffy 12y ago
    The problem is not how hard it is to get answers, but how hard it is to be sure you actually solved the problem correctly. Have you ever tried to debug a complicated spreadsheet? To validate one? With so many financial institutions basing their decisions on spreadsheets designed in ways that would - or, at the very least, should - horrify even the most incompetent and irresponsible computer programmer, I don't think you understand how serious the issue really is.
gilgoomesh 12y ago
Technically, Apple only axed Hypercard in 2004: http://due-diligence.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/a_eulogy_for_hy.html http://due-diligence.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/a_eulogy_for_h... Being axed by Apple wasn't its problem. Hypercard was already obsolete by the early 1990s for a range of technical and mismanagement reasons: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275781
- idlewords 12y ago
  I was working in academia at the time it got axed (2004), and you'd be amazed at the number of people quietly depending on it, with no idea that they had actually learned some scripting. Professors I had never even suspected of using a computer were absolutely bereft. Some people had poured vast amounts of work into creating HyperCard stacks, and there was really no viable alternative to point them to. It was heartbreaking to watch.
Widdershin 12y ago
Another one of these product is (or at least was) Game Maker. I only learned to program because I started out making games with the drag and drop tiles, and then moving from there into code.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Sadly, YoYoGames no longer provides a free version. Now tons of hobbyists are stuck on GM 8.0, like myself and the rest of the Gang Garrison 2 team: http://www.ganggarrison.com/ http://www.ganggarrison.com/
  - dragonbonheur 12y ago
    They announced that GameMaker studio was free for the Windows version. https://www.yoyogames.com/news/227 https://www.yoyogames.com/news/227 Some alternatives are Enigma (http://enigma-dev.org/ http://enigma-dev.org/) Or Game Develop (http://www.compilgames.net/ http://www.compilgames.net/)
    - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
      Oh thank god YoYoGames have seen sense and made GM free again. Though, seriously, the damage was already done.
porker 12y ago
What happened to FileMaker Pro? I am too young to have used it, but I often wonder (based on what I heard about it) if we're reinventing it on the web, time and time again.
- jasoncrawford 12y ago
  Well, it still exists: http://www.filemaker.com/ http://www.filemaker.com/ At its peak, FileMaker did around $100M in annual revenue, and was eventually acquired by Apple. It operates independently. Many people still use it, along with Microsoft Access, and there are still consultants who make a living off of it. FileMaker never really made the transition to the Web, though. (They added “Web publishing” features but, as far as I understand, never became a true cloud app. There are some cloud databases and “app builders” online, such as Zoho Creator, Intuit QuickBase, TrackVia, and Knack HQ (to name just a few). To my knowledge none of them have very wide adoption. IMO the motivation behind all of these is good, but a different approach is needed—which is what we're doing with Fieldbook: https://fieldbookapp.com/demo https://fieldbookapp.com/demo
  - porker 12y ago
    Wow, Fieldbook looks awesome! What are you using as the datastore behind it? And the interface framework - entirely custom or built on AngularJS or similar?
    - jasoncrawford 12y ago
      Thanks! It's backed by Mongo. Node server with a Backbone front end. A lot of custom code, though.

rbanffy 12y ago

A baby unicorn dies every time someone builds an overly complex Excel spreadsheet that should actually be a program.

te_chris 12y ago
Yes, why should people solve problems they have themselves in ways that disagree with our aesthetic?
- rbanffy 12y ago
  The problem is not how hard it is to get answers, but how hard it is to be sure you actually solved the problem correctly. Have you ever tried to debug a complicated spreadsheet? To validate one? With so many financial institutions basing their decisions on spreadsheets designed in ways that would - or, at the very least, should - horrify even the most incompetent and irresponsible computer programmer, I don't think you understand how serious the issue really is.

gilgoomesh 12y ago

Technically, Apple only axed Hypercard in 2004: http://due-diligence.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/a_eulogy_for_hy.html http://due-diligence.typepad.com/blog/2004/03/a_eulogy_for_h... Being axed by Apple wasn't its problem. Hypercard was already obsolete by the early 1990s for a range of technical and mismanagement reasons: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275781

idlewords 12y ago
I was working in academia at the time it got axed (2004), and you'd be amazed at the number of people quietly depending on it, with no idea that they had actually learned some scripting. Professors I had never even suspected of using a computer were absolutely bereft. Some people had poured vast amounts of work into creating HyperCard stacks, and there was really no viable alternative to point them to. It was heartbreaking to watch.

Widdershin 12y ago

Another one of these product is (or at least was) Game Maker. I only learned to program because I started out making games with the drag and drop tiles, and then moving from there into code.

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Sadly, YoYoGames no longer provides a free version. Now tons of hobbyists are stuck on GM 8.0, like myself and the rest of the Gang Garrison 2 team: http://www.ganggarrison.com/ http://www.ganggarrison.com/
- dragonbonheur 12y ago
  They announced that GameMaker studio was free for the Windows version. https://www.yoyogames.com/news/227 https://www.yoyogames.com/news/227 Some alternatives are Enigma (http://enigma-dev.org/ http://enigma-dev.org/) Or Game Develop (http://www.compilgames.net/ http://www.compilgames.net/)
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    Oh thank god YoYoGames have seen sense and made GM free again. Though, seriously, the damage was already done.

porker 12y ago

What happened to FileMaker Pro? I am too young to have used it, but I often wonder (based on what I heard about it) if we're reinventing it on the web, time and time again.

jasoncrawford 12y ago
Well, it still exists: http://www.filemaker.com/ http://www.filemaker.com/ At its peak, FileMaker did around $100M in annual revenue, and was eventually acquired by Apple. It operates independently. Many people still use it, along with Microsoft Access, and there are still consultants who make a living off of it. FileMaker never really made the transition to the Web, though. (They added “Web publishing” features but, as far as I understand, never became a true cloud app. There are some cloud databases and “app builders” online, such as Zoho Creator, Intuit QuickBase, TrackVia, and Knack HQ (to name just a few). To my knowledge none of them have very wide adoption. IMO the motivation behind all of these is good, but a different approach is needed—which is what we're doing with Fieldbook: https://fieldbookapp.com/demo https://fieldbookapp.com/demo
- porker 12y ago
  Wow, Fieldbook looks awesome! What are you using as the datastore behind it? And the interface framework - entirely custom or built on AngularJS or similar?
  - jasoncrawford 12y ago
    Thanks! It's backed by Mongo. Node server with a Backbone front end. A lot of custom code, though.