Re: Porting MetaCard Applications

Scott Raney ((no email))
Wed, 26 Jan 94 21:10:30 MST

>
> Does anyone know of ways to port MetaCard apps to Mac and DOS machines. I
> have been asked about the possibilities of porting the app I am currently
> developing. I told them I thought the scripts would be re-usable for the
> most part but that someone, other than me of course, would need to re-type
> all of the scripts and create the cards in the different machines.
>
> Are there recommendations on the packages that would behave the closest to
> MetaCard? I think HyperCard is a safe bet on the MAC. :-)

The FAQ has the list of similar packages, here they are again, with a
new addition since SuperCard has been risen from its own ashes (a
group including the original developers has purchased it from Aldus):

HyperCard (Mac)
Claris Corporation
Box 58168 MS C11
Santa Clara, CA 95052
408-727-8227

Plus (Mac and Windows)
Spinnaker Software
201 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 82139
617-494-1200

(Oracle version of Spinnaker Plus)
Oracle Card
Oracle Corporation
500 Oracle Parkway
Redwood Shores, CA 94065
415-506-7000

SuperCard
Allegiant Technologies
4660 La Jolla Village Drive
Suite 500
San Diego, CO 92122
619-535-4803
619-535-4890 (fax)

WindowCraft (Windows)
WindowCraft Corporation
1000 Main Street
Acton, MA 01720-9859
508-263-7674
508-263-4158 fax
800-828-2268 orders

HyperSense (NeXTStep)
Thoughful Software
616 East Locus
Fort Collins, CO 80524
303-221-4596

As for having to retype the scripts, the good solution to the problem
would be general availability of a products to read and write HIFF
files, together with a spec extending HIFF to include stuff like color
and object graphics.

Unfortunately, the reader side is non-trivial and would have to be
written from scratch (Convert-It can only write HIFF files: the reader
runs in ToolBook and does all the conversion there). Fortunately, the
basic code would be the same for all platforms. Only compensating for
(or gracefully ignoring) unsupported features would have to be
customized for each platform.

We've had a number of people ask for the ability to import SuperCard
stacks. Unfortunately, there isn't a big enough market for this to
justify writing a binary converter. We would be more than happy to
help anyone willing to undertake the development of a HIFF
reader/writer to do it, however.

I doubt there's much money to be made in a product like this, but
there are enough people who need it that it should be relatively easy
to come up with enough engineering support in the overlapping customer
base to get it done. What's needed is a motivated individual to
spearhead the project.

Anyone interested?

Scott

> Brad Marx
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> | Bradford Marx | Disclaimer: Booz-Allen does not usually share my |
> | marxb@bah.com | opinions, but I continue to offer them anyway. |
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
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* Scott Raney  303-447-3936            Remember: the better you look, *
* raney@metacard.com                   the more you'll see -- Lidia   *
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