HyperCard 2.4 Bugs

OS 9 Incompatibilities

Here is a description from Kevin Calhoun of Apple Computer about these problems:

Apple events

"Because Mac OS 9 introduces the ability to use IP addressing for Apple events and because HyperCard currently knows nothing about this kind of addressing, problems can ensue when you try to use IP addressing either to target other programs from HyperCard or a standalone or to target HyperCard or a standalone. The problems occur only in scripts that use specific Apple event-related features of HyperTalk.

In particular, your scripts that use Apple events will continue to work just fine, unless --

CASE 1:
- you use the 'answer program' command, AND
- the end user of your stack uses the 'answer program' dialog (also known as the 'PPC Browser') to choose a target program using IP addressing. Using IP addressing in the PPC Browser is not easy to do by mistake; you actually have to select "IP addressing" and enter the hostname or IP address of the target machine to do this.

In this case, after the 'answer program' command the variable 'it' will not contain a valid address for the target program, and the ensuing script will not be able to send Apple events to that program.

CASE 2:
- you use the third parameter of the 'appleEvent' message to determine the address of the program that has sent you an Apple event, and you use the address either to determine something about the sender or as an address for Apple events you send later in return, AND
- someone has used IP addressing to send HyperCard (or your standalone) an Apple event. For example, with the version of AppleScript that comes with Mac OS 9, scripters can use IP addressing using the following syntax:

   tell application "HyperCard" of machine "eppc://somewhere.onthe.net"
      do script "beep"          -- or whatever
   end tell

In this case, the third parameter of the 'appleEvent' message will not contain a valid address for the sending program, and ensuing scripts will not be able to use it for any purpose."

Visual effects

"As has been widely reported, visual effects slow down drastically under Mac OS 9 on certain machines. As previously noted on this list, the problem occurs only when you run the PowerPC-native version of HyperCard or a PowerPC-native standalone, and only, as I've just said, on certain machines. What has not yet been reported is the list of machines on which this problem occurs. Unfortunately I don't yet have such a list. I know that it doesn't occur on my G3 All-in-one (with a 233 MHz G3) but it does occur on my Power Macintosh G3 blue-and-white (with a 350 MHz G3). I've read one report that it occurs only on machines with a specific revision of the Macintosh ROM. That same report mentioned that the problem does occur on Mac OS 8.6, but I was unable to make it happen under Mac OS 8.6 on my blue-and-white. So, from what I can tell, it happens only on fairly recent vintage G3 machines, and only with Mac OS 9."

[Update 2/00] The visual effects problem appears to occur on USB Macs running either OS 8.6 or OS 9.

[Update 12/00] The visual effects bug was corrected with the release of OS 9.0.4. Updating to this system software will fix the problem.

Color printing

HyperCard externals such as Reports for HyperCard can't print in color or grayscale with any version of the LaserWriter printer driver greater than 8.4.1.

Standalone bug

Fortunately there's a simple workaround:

1. Open your standalone in a resource editor such as ResEdit.

2. Find the 'HVRS' resource ID 1.

3. Change its ID to 128.

This will fix the problem.

Script editor bug

1. Open a script and make a change to it.

2. Save the change with the Save menu item, or use Cmd-S.

3. Choose Undo from the Edit menu, or use Cmd-Z.

4. Save the undo with the Save menu item, or use Cmd-S, or type the Enter key.

5. Close the script editor if it isn't closed already.

The restored "undone" changes will be lost.

No scripts are lost if additional text is typed after the "undo" operation. The work-around is to avoid saving changes that have been restored from an "undo" operation unless you have typed additional new text into the script first.

This bug was fixed in HyperCard 2.4.1.