HyperCard
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|
| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1987 |
| Stable release |
2.4.1 / 1998
|
| Development status | Historic |
| Operating system | Apple IIGS: System Software 5, System Software 6 Macintosh: System Software 6, System 7, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9 |
| Type | Hypermedia, Development |
| License | Proprietary |
HyperCard is an application program and programming tool for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers, that is among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web.
It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, a programming language for manipulating data and the user interface.
This combination of features – simple form layout, database capabilities and ease of programming – led to widespread use in many different roles. Some HyperCard users employed it as a programming system for rapid application development of applications and databases, others for building interactive applications with no database requirements, command and control systems, and many examples in the demoscene.
HyperCard was originally released in 1987 for $49.95 and was included for free with all new Macs sold at the time. It was withdrawn from sale in March 2004 after its final update in 1998. HyperCard has not been ported to Mac OS X but ran in the Classic Environment.
Through its influence on Robert Cailliau (who assisted in the development of Tim Berners-Lee's first Web browser), Hypercard influenced the development of the Web in late 1990.
Although Hypercard stacks did not operate over the Internet, by 1988 there were at least 300 stacks publicly available for download from the commercial CompuServe network (which was not connected to the official Internet yet) and the system could link phone numbers on a person's computer together and enable them to dial numbers without a modem.
In this sense, like the Web it did form a "brain-like" association/link-based experience of information browsing despite the fact it didn't operate remotely over the TCP/IP protocol at that time. Like the Web, it also allowed for the connections of many different kinds of media.
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