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0 pointsbobajeff1y ago0 comments

I think their goal is similar to what smalltalk's goal originally was: To allow for regular people to do complex things with a computer.

Ultimately, it didn't succeed in that goal but I believe inventing the first spreadsheet software can be counted as achieving some success there.

I admire this project and hope they can one day move beyond simply typing code on a sheet of paper to creating tools that actually make our compilers/IDEs look like using punch cards.

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samatman1y ago· 2 in thread

Without Smalltalk, there would have been no HyperCard, and HyperCard definitely succeeded in that goal to a significant degree.

It's a pity there's never been a modern reboot with the right factors aligned to continue that work.

daniel_grady1y ago

https://www.beyondloom.com/decker/index.html

samatman1y ago

I think Decker is just wonderful, but it's retro. That isn't a criticism of it at all, that's what it wants to be and I don't think it should try to be something else.

But it isn't what I meant. A HyperCard reboot would be a modern GUI builder with a deck-of-cards drag-drop metaphor, deployable as desktop, browser, and mobile apps for any platform. Mobile poses some problems, particularly iOS, but I don't think those are unsurmountable.

Decker is a love letter to the HyperCard which was. But if HyperCard had survived as a product, today's version wouldn't look anything like that.

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