[abemiller]

Everyone in this thread reminiscing about hypercard and how more modern no-code tools still have not matched its amazing functionality and UI.

So, what's to stop someone today from making a modern hypercard clone? I imagine something which has the exact same UI logic as hypercard and allows projects to be exported as JavaScript WebApps. Is it not possible?

Seems like it should exist! Inviting any volunteers...

[hyperhello]

We could call it HyperCardSimulator.com

:-D I’m the developer of this, and particularly proud that not only can you Import stacks, icons and all, but you can Export single page web apps that end in .stack.html and run in any modern browser! It’s all in the hamburger menu.

[buescher]

Bravo! But, I picked a stack at random from archive.org, probably one that was too complex, and it just threw an error when I tried to import it. What are some limitations to be aware of?

[hyperhello]

The importer will open StuffIt and old OS disk images just like archive.org gives you, but something unexpected could have gone wrong. I’ll probably do a few bug fixes tonight.

[ChrisArchitect]

was just digging to find more about this/you -- and noticed it's similar to that WildCard thing from not so long ago?? Did you just expand/shift it over to the new domain or?

[ChrisArchitect]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29284296

[scroot]

> So, what's to stop someone today from making a modern hypercard clone?

One issue is the HyperCard fit holistically with Macs of the 80s and early 90s. A straight clone doesn't quite make sense today -- perhaps we need slightly different metaphors.

Last year I was a part of a research team that explored some of this. We ended up producing a system called Simpletalk [1], which is essentially a web-based system and scripting language inspired by Smalltalk and Hypercard. If you are interested, I also gave a talk [2] on some of the motivations and design behind the system.

[1] https://github.com/dkrasner/Simpletalk

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6MkU5fLJw

[jayd16]

Hypercard is absolute layout, I think. A large part of UI complexity is handling all the aspect ratios.

[pvg]

still have not matched its amazing functionality and UI

This isn't because people just ignored or forgot Hypercard - similar tools just evolved in many different directions and many of them were much more popular than Hypercard. FileMaker, Access, Visual Basic and their ilk come to mind; the current crop of 'no code' tools are also distant descendants. A key difficulty isn't replicating the UI, it's coming up with a tool/system that's both accessible to non-experts while also providing a smooth 'power curve' to the more sophisticated features of the platform. Without that, motivated beginners quickly run up against the limitations of the built-in functionality or a big jump in conceptual and practical complexity.

[Lammy]

There’s SuperCard, but I’ve not tried it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperCard

[soapdog]

There is a bunch of them out there. Many died in the last twenty years. The only ones that I am aware of that are in active development are LiveCode and SuperCard.