[roel_v]

Is it not programming because the syntax is verbose? I don't know anything about hypercard, but from the example in the OP it just looks like a limited and clunky IDE with a toy programming language. Just enough to build things that are just about good enough for people with limited goals, but then again there are thousands of products like that out there.

The whole paranoid 'everybody conspires against it because it's so great' is bullshit. If it's so great, why hasn't anyone make a clone and got rich of it? It's quite obvious why: because everybody who uses it runs into its limitations very quickly, so clones add extensions, and after a few iterations it becomes too difficult for beginners. And then the next clone stands up, lather rinse repeat.