I use Hypercard to control and evaluate data in the isotope ratio mass spectromtrie environment. We really control the mass-spec and all connected physical hardware like additional gauges, preparation devices, DMMÇs and others using serial to IEEE 488 converters. HyperCard with its ability to build up every control as buttons or fields is the interactive container for all our demands. Data evaluation and storage is be done in additional stacks which are combined with gauges or meters represented on screen. Actual we control a Finnigan DeltaE Mass-spec with an attached equilibration-device, gas-multiport and DIC-isotop-prep-sdystem using IEEE 488 control to the mass-spec and its peripherals including liquid nitrogen-support-control, a Keithley DMM 2000 with scanner and a serial controlled gasbench. It runs on 3 Macs. iMac #1 controls simultaneously the three devices, iMac #2 is the print-server and database engine, PPC4400 with G3-accerlation is the actual MS-controller and the hardware-interface. They are all connected via 10MB Ethernet and uses program to program-communication between the stacks. Every Stack runs in a different named copy of Hypercard. We ran up to 5000 Samples in the last years and are now able to nearly double the amount. For long-term storage of data is a Filemaker database involved. All our other computer-based datamanagement is done by Mac. I worked at the stable isotope department of the "Leibniz-Labor fur Altersbestimmung und Isotopenforschung der universitat Kiel". In the near future it is planned to re-engineer our Kiel-Carbonat-System to be controlled by Macs instead of Apple IIe! By the way, all of our quick-and-dirty software development is based on Hypercard. It still ran with MacOS 9.
Comments to: Hans H. Cordt
At school the office staff were constantly forgetting to ring our bell at the appropriate times. So for a computers project (in a school full of PC's) I wrote a Hypercard stack that rings the bell and then reads out what the next class is over the PA - our timetable is not always the same. Now the bell is rung by an old LCII.. and its always on time!
Comments to: Tim Egan
I made a grading program for my classes that I use to take attendance, calculate and post grades, remind me of events, print all the special ed. and attendance forms, and e-mail all changes in status- new grades, absences, discipline- to parent, student, administrator, guidance counselor, and case manager, depending on preferences for each kid. Friday afternoon with a click of a button all records are backed up, forms printed, standard e-mail sent. I am the only one using a Mac in the high school, and we are building two new schools for $165 million. No one has found software that can- or can be customized to-do what I am doing with a HyperCard stack. Me- a little bitty social studies teacher.
Comments to: Tom Gilfoyle
Back when I was not serious about computer programming and wanted to be an author, I was checking out some older files on my Mac II ci, and found Hypercard 2.1! I asked my Dad if he had anything on it, and he gave me a binder about 4 inches thick and a 500 page book on Hypercard. Using those two tools, I began to develop stacks. Then, one day during English class, (Middle school!) I realized Hypercard`s potental: GAMES!!!! I took out my notebook and began doodling the layout for my first game, Hyper Quest. Hyper Quest is sort of like Myst in the sence that you go around clicking on stuff. It`s also an RPG with a battle system. After Hyper Quest was in the works, my company, Rome Entertainment, was born. When I look back at Hyper Quest, I think about fate. What if I didn`t discover Hyper Card? What if, that one december evening, I didn`t get that binder or book? What if I didn`t make Hyper Quest? I would be an author now, but, with HyperCard`s help, I became a programmer, something I had dreamed about ever since I first got a computer. As you can see, HyperCard has been a great help to me and my life.
Comments to: Roman Kalinoski
Hypercard has to be one of the most intuitive presentation/language programs ever developed. I conclude this because - hey - even I can do it. My first efforts in programming were specialized programs for my kids to help them with schoolwork (e.g. "Alphabetize This!") Recently, I used Hypercard to provide computer-assisted instruction in Neonatology (medical care of babies)to Pediatric residents at the children's hospital where I work. The residents give feed-back on reading assignments and can play a game called "Can you make it to a million" (yes, it's a knock-off of the popular T.V. game, but the questions cover important medical concepts). I am currently working with digitized images to create programs that will help training in medical procedures and help with physical diagnosis.
Comments to: Frank Kokomoor
I used Hypercard to generate a geneology program which I have used since the MacPlus era. I have upgraded it to utilize new features as Hypercard became a more serious programming tool. I am currently using it on a PowerPC 6500 with Mac OS9. There is still no other genealogy program for any platform that has all the features and capacity of this one that I know of. I also used my own integrated stacks for estimating, work orders, billing, maintaining Accounts Receivable & Payable,and compiling P & L and a complete schedule C summary for about 15 years in managing our own comercial printing business. When we retired in late 1998 the new owners of the business were amazed at the efficientcy and ease of use of the software. Hypercard is certainly no toy.
Comments to: Gaylon Lovelace
Since 1993 my company, Idiom Software Inc., has been making foreign language tutorial software with HyperCard. It all began for us in 1992, when I was working as a substitute teacher in a district here in Washington. My brother, a teacher of Spanish, had received a large grant for software, and eagerly began a lengthy search for materials to use in his classroom. After many weeks, he reluctantly gave up the search, and returned most of the grant money, because there was virtually NO software for the Macintosh platfrom that suited his department's needs. At just about the same time, I had discovered HyperCard, quite by accident, while playing games on a Mac-Classic provided to him by the school. After some weeks of clusmy experiments, trips to the library to hunt down HC manuals, and some late (but happy) nights, it became clear that WE could write the software that he needed and wanted, we two teachers, with no prior background in computing or programming. After more than six years, we have produced more than a dozen titles in Spanish, French, German, Italian and English versions. Our HyperCard titles are robust, compatible with many systems from Mac+ to the latests G3/G4's, and (we think) easy to use, just like HyperCard itself. The sad part of this story is that we have been forced by circumstances in the past year to migrate away from HC to the use of cross platform tools, principaly Macromedia's Director. The transition has not been a wholly satifactory one, and the stuggle with expensive, buggy software tools has made us painfully aware of just how good we had it with HyperCard, and just how much we will lose if Apple declines to support and market HyperCard in the future.
Comments to: James D. Parkin
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Revised: February 18, 2001
URL: http://www.hyperactivesw.com/HCStories/stories.html