Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Building Interactive Systems pp 35–55Cite as

HyperCard: An Object-Oriented Disappointment

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Workshops in Computing ((WORKSHOPS COMP.))

Abstract

Although HyperCard is claimed to be easy to use it has many limitations and curious features. It is further claimed to be ‘object oriented.’ This object orientation is also limited and curious. The disappointment is that HyperCard’s arbitrariness and limitations are technically unnecessary, indeed result in error prone constructions, slower execution, increased learning effort. Yet HyperCard is successful: we will never know how much more successful it might have been had its designers employed any programming language design principles.

Author for correspondence.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Apple Inc., Human Interface Guidelines: The Apple Desktop Interface, Addison-Wesley, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Apple Inc., Hyper Card Stack Design Guidelines, Addison-Wesley, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  3. M. C. Atkins & A. W. Brown, “Principles of Object-Oriented Systems,” Software Engineer’s Reference Book, J. A. McDermid, ed., pp39/1–39/13, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd., 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Claris Corp., Hyper Card Script Language Guide, 2nd. edition, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  5. G. F. Coulouris & H. W. Thimbleby, HyperProgramming, Addison-Wesley, in press.

    Google Scholar 

  6. J. Gervich, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Hyper Card,” in B. K. Laurel, ed., The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, pp131–133, Addison-Wesley, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  7. J. Neilsen, I. Frehr & H. O. Nymand, “The Learnability of HyperCard as an Object-Oriented Programming System,” Behaviour and Information Technology, volume 10, number 2, pp111–120, 1991.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. R. D. Tennent, Principles of Programming Languages, Prentice-Hall, 1981.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. II. W. Thimbleby, User Interface Design, Addison-Wesley, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stirling University, Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland

    Harold Thimbleby, Andy Cockburn & Steve Jones

Authors
  1. Harold Thimbleby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andy Cockburn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Steve Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computing Science Department, University of Glasgrow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK

    Philip Gray MSc

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, YO1 5DD, UK

    Roger Took PhD

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1992 Springer-Verlag London

About this paper

Cite this paper

Thimbleby, H., Cockburn, A., Jones, S. (1992). HyperCard: An Object-Oriented Disappointment. In: Gray, P., Took, R. (eds) Building Interactive Systems. Workshops in Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3548-7_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3548-7_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19736-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3548-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation