Stirring the soup

[richmond62]

Well, fooling around as one does, and having a Ukrainian girls whose Dad was once a programmer for MacKiev, I hopped over to have a look at HyperStudio; basically a no-programming version of "you-know-what", and wondered if we might provide a "Roger Wag" front-end for the 'low' end?
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This is essentially a prefs palette for a button.

https://rogerwagner.com/hs/testdrive/Welcome_Page.html

Currently down loading a trial version on my 'Tired Lion' Mac at work, so will have an explore . . . certainly from that image I get the feeling that there is probably NO way of doing any scripting.

The underlying language is LOGO, popped over to Macintosh Garden to download early versions to run on one of my PPC MAcs to poke around.

[richmond62]

HyperStudio 5.2 [looks as if it is stuck in about 1998] has, on Macintosh, a 'Menubar' glued to the top of the 'Home' stack, the Home stack being what it was in HyperCard, i.e.fulfilling what LCs 'Start Center' offers.

Tangentially: I wonder why LC made the Home stack invisible and delegated many of the things the HC Home offered to the Start Center?
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So: 1 thought . . .

1. A souped-up Start Center [Paul has already said quite a bit about this idea]?

[richmond62]

This is not really relevant unless you have the 'hots' for a retro colourised HyperCard Tool stack:
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Starting a new Stack . . .

The HELPER palette:
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Not sure what that dog is doing there.

BUT, for people who need their hands held it might be a good thing.
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No. not a bad idea at all.

[richmond62]

In spite of initial reservations, I think this would be a fine thing for the school kids to get them started:
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[richmond62]

The Prefs palette is, frankly, a lot more intuitive than the current LC/OXT one:
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AND, as far as that goes, I am well impressed . . .

BUT, get at the code? Not as far as I can tell.
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I could find nothing that would let me get at the underlying code.

[richmond62]

Tangentially, a web-search for 'HyperStudio "writing LOGO'' let me to MIT:

http://hyperstudio.mit.edu/

which is fascinating, but . . .

https://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/ ... o-3-1.html

"Version 3.1g was the last version of the program produced by Roger Wagner, and by that time and it had developed into something both programmers and non-programmers alike could get their teeth into. The scripting language provided allowed those with programming skills to really create more powerful stacks while the drag and drop interface allowed anyone, even kids, to quickly and easily make their own hypermedia."

So, I hope this weekend to get HyperStudio 3 installed on a clunky bit of hardware to see about that.

[richmond62]

Clicking on random menu items is pretty silly, but:
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https://www.mackiev.com/hsa/
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Interesting: dated 2014 and listed as 'beta'.

[richmond62]

This just appears to be a castrated version of HyperStudio for producing iBooks:
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[richmond62]

Having come home, and had a bit of supper, I should like to reiterate how impressed I am in the way the Help system palettes in HyperStudio 5.2 lead one painlessly into Preference palettes for objects.

How much of this is Roger Wagner's work, and how much of it is later stuff I have yet to determine.

But I have a good mind to try and implement this sort of thing as that may be a pedagogical stepping stone that has been overlooked in LC/OXT.

[richmond62]

32-bit only, at least on the Macintosh side:
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Well my MacOS 12 iMac wouldn't bite.

[richmond62]

Wow: that Rotatable Text got my digestive juices flowing:
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It stays as an editable text field when rotated!
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WOW! IF . . .

[richmond62]

AND one can import an .ODT document via the 'Get File' button:
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No faffing around with opening a document in another app and then copy-pasting the thing.

All the 'crap' you'd expect:
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Use a text field as a button:
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[richmond62]

Massive library of 'Graphic objects':
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ALL scalable vectors:
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[richmond62]

Of course as a 'programming snob' I would start with these sorts of criticisms:

1. Lack of access to code is rubbish.

2. Spoon-fed vectors stultify the imagination.

As a teacher trying to get the 9-15 year old bunch into programming I would start with these points:

1. Lack of access to code is rubbish.

2. The HELP system that merges into Property/Preference should be extremely helpful indeed, especially in freeing kiddos from a lot of dependence on a teacher.

So . . . there are a lot of really positive features that could be built into either OXT [the product] or OXT [the learner's version] that would enhance all the very wonderful features OXT has inherited from LC.

[richmond62]

Any learner's version will start with an ATTACK on the Tools palette:

1. As soon as an end-user selects an object on the Tools palette a relevant HELP palette should pop up.

2. The Help palette would guide the end-user through ALL the features an object can have.
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The dog would go.

But the "Don't show this tip again" checkbox would remain.

AND, obviously, the HELP system would be toggle-able in the revPreferencesGUI stack.

[richmond62]

NOT convinced by the in-built 'filmettes':
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BUT, again, the HELP system is informative:
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I could find NO obvious way to import external movie files.

[richmond62]

The 'Object Browser' is crude in the extreme, and makes our current Application and Project Browsers look positively magnificent:
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[richmond62]

Wow: those vector graphics can be easily rotated: I wonder if that could be implemented in OXT?
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Finally worked out how to IMPORT images:
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No jaggies on rotate!!!!!!!!

[tperry2x]

ALL scalable vectors

Sorry to wee on your bonfire, but that's not a vector graphic. If you look closely, you can see it starting to pixellate heavily.

[tperry2x]

the "Don't show this tip again" checkbox would remain.
AND, obviously, the HELP system would be toggle-able in the revPreferencesGUI stack.

And perhaps an option to 'reset previously hidden help tips"