Editing HyperCard (section)

==Legacy==
HyperCard is one of the first products that made use of and popularized the [[hypertext]] concept to a large popular base of users.

[[Jakob Nielsen (usability consultant)|Jakob Nielsen]] has pointed out that HyperCard was really only a [[hypermedia]] program since its links started from regions on a card, not text objects; actual [[HTML]]-style text [[hyperlink]]s were possible in later versions, but were awkward to implement and seldom used.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/DDJ/1990/9006/9006j/9006j.htm|title=Programming Paradigms, Dr. Dobbs Journal, Jun 1990|quote=The biggest failing of HyperCard for anyone interested in hypertext is the lack of text links.| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130124858/http://collaboration.cmc.ec.gc.ca/science/rpn/biblio/ddj/Website/articles/DDJ/1990/9006/9006j/9006j.htm |archive-date=30 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/dr_dobbs_journal_vol_15/page/n559/mode/2up|title=Programming Paradigms |magazine=Dr. Dobb's Journal |volume=15 |issue=June 1990|quote=The biggest failing of HyperCard for anyone interested in hypertext is the lack of text links.| page=130 |first=Michael |last=Swaine}}</ref> [[Deena Larsen]] programmed links into HyperCard for Marble Springs.  Bill Atkinson later lamented that if he had only realized the power of network-oriented stacks, instead of focusing on local stacks on a single machine, HyperCard could have become the first Web browser.<ref>{{Citation |url= https://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/08/54370 |title= HyperCard: What Could Have Been |newspaper= Wired |date=Aug 2002}}</ref>

HyperCard saw a loss in popularity with the growth of the World Wide Web, since the Web could handle and deliver data in much the same way as HyperCard without being limited to files on a local [[hard disk]]. HyperCard had a significant impact on the web as it inspired the creation of both [[HTTP]] (through its influence on [[Tim Berners-Lee]]'s colleague [[Robert Cailliau]]),<ref>{{Citation|publisher=Computer |url=http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/ic-cailliau |first=Robert |last=Cailliau |title=How It Really Happened |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106041256/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/ic-cailliau |archive-date=January 6, 2011}} (on the WWW proposal).</ref> and [[JavaScript]] (whose creator, [[Brendan Eich]], was inspired by [[HyperTalk]]<ref>{{Citation|first=Brendan |last=Eich |year=1998 |publisher=Danny G |url=http://www.dannyg.com/pubs/jsb/JSB6TOC.html |title=JavaScript Bible |edition=3rd |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415133443/http://www.dannyg.com/pubs/jsb/JSB6TOC.html |archive-date=April 15, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>). It was also a key inspiration for [[ViolaWWW]], an early web browser.<ref>{{cite book |title= How the Web was born: The Story of the World Wide Web |last1= Gillies |first1= James |first2= Robert |last2= Cailliau |year= 2000 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn= 0-19-286207-3 |page= [https://archive.org/details/howwebwasbornsto00gill/page/213 213] |quote= I got a HyperCard manual and looked at it and just basically took the concepts and implemented them in X-windows{{sic}}. |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/howwebwasbornsto00gill/page/213 }}</ref>

The pointing-finger [[Cursor (user interface)|cursor]] used for navigating stacks was later used in the first web browsers, as the hyperlink cursor.<ref>{{Citation |url= http://www.granneman.com/techinfo/background/history/ |first= Scott |last= Granneman |title= Computing history 1968–present |contribution= 1987}}</ref>

The ''[[Myst]]'' computer game franchise, initially released as a HyperCard stack and included bundled with some Macs (for example the [[Performa]] 5300), still lives on, making HyperCard a facilitating technology for starting one of the best-selling computer games of all time.<ref>{{Citation |url= http://www.1up.com/features/essential-50-myst |title= The Essential 50 |contribution= Part 33: Myst |publisher= 1UP |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110523021918/http://www.1up.com/features/essential-50-myst |archive-date= May 23, 2011 |df= mdy-all }}</ref>

According to [[Ward Cunningham]], the inventor of [[Wiki]], the wiki concept can be traced back to a HyperCard stack he wrote in the late 1980s.<ref>{{Citation |url= http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiHistory |title= C2 |contribution= Wiki History |format= wiki}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |first= Kim |last= Bruning |title= Wikinewsie discusses Wikimania |type= Interview|title-link= n:Interview: Wikinewsie Kim Bruning discusses Wikimania }}</ref><ref>
*{{Citation |url= http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7739076742312910146 |title= Video |contribution= An Evening in Conversation with the Wiki Inventor |first1= Ward |last1= Cunningham |first2= John |last2= Gage |access-date= February 9, 2007 |archive-date= May 7, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070507062332/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7739076742312910146 |url-status= dead }}
*{{cite web |author1=[[Computer History Museum]] |title=Wiki Inventor Ward Cunningham with John Gage |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx6nNqSASGo |website=youtube |access-date=25 June 2023 |language=en |date=April 24, 2006}}
</ref>

In 2017 the [[Internet Archive]] established a project to preserve and [[Emulator|emulate]] HyperCard stacks, allowing users to upload their own.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://blog.archive.org/2017/08/11/hypercard-on-the-archive-celebrating-30-years-of-hypercard/ |publisher=[[The Internet Archive]] |date=August 11, 2017 |first=Jason |last=Scott |title=HyperCard On The Archive (Celebrating 30 Years of HyperCard) |quote=After our addition of in-browser early Macintosh emulation earlier this year, the Internet Archive now has a lot of emulated Hypercard stacks available for perusal, and we encourage you to upload your own, easily and quickly.}}</ref>

The GUI of the prototype Apple [[Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone]] was based on HyperCard.<ref name="2019-04-09-WALT-video">{{cite web |last1=Dickson |first1=Sonny |title=Video of Apple's W.A.L.T. in Action - The 1993-Edition iPhone |url=https://sonnydickson.com/2019/04/09/video-of-apples-w-a-l-t-in-action-the-1993-edition-iphone/ |website=SonnyDickson |access-date=11 April 2019 |date=8 April 2019}}</ref>

===World Wide Web===
HyperCard influenced the development of the Web in late 1990 through its influence on [[Robert Cailliau]], who assisted in developing [[Tim Berners-Lee]]'s first Web browser.<ref>[http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/People.html People involved in the WorldWideWeb project]</ref> Javascript was inspired by HyperTalk.<ref>Dr. Axel Rauschmayer, [http://speakingjs.com/es5/ch03.html Speaking JavaScript: An In-Depth Guide for Programmers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226141123/http://speakingjs.com/es5/ch03.html%0A |date=December 26, 2018 }} (O'Reilly, 2014)</ref>

Although HyperCard stacks do not operate over the [[Internet]], by 1988, at least 300 stacks were publicly available for download from the commercial [[CompuServe]] network (which was not connected to the official Internet yet). The system can link phone numbers on a user's computer together and enable them to dial numbers without a modem, using a less expensive piece of hardware, the Hyperdialer.<ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5z4EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22hypercard%22+compuserve&pg=RA1-PA37| title=HyperCard:The First Eight Months| magazine=[[InfoWorld]]| date=11 April 1988| page=37| volume=10| issue=15| first1=Denise| last1=Greene| first2=Doug| last2=Greene}}</ref>

In this sense, like the Web, it does form an association-based experience of information browsing via links, though not operating remotely over the TCP/IP protocol then. Like the Web, it also allows for the connections of many different kinds of media.

===Similar systems===
Atkinson said that the odds a non-Macintosh software product would clone HyperCard were "99 percent", and hoped that they would be data compatible with HyperCard.{{r|mace19870817}} {{As of|2024}}, two products are available which offer HyperCard-like abilities:
* [[HyperStudio]], one of the first HyperCard clones, is {{as of|2009|lc=yes}}, developed and published by Software MacKiev.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.mackiev.com/hyperstudio/hs_reviews.html |title= HyperStudio |publisher=Software MacKiev|access-date= August 31, 2009}}</ref>
* [[LiveCode]], published by [[LiveCode (company)|LiveCode, Ltd.]], expands greatly on HyperCard's feature set<ref>{{cite web |url=https://opensource.com/education/13/2/livecode |title= LiveCode is Next Generation of HyperCard |publisher=opensource.com |date= February 23, 2013}}</ref> and offers color and a GUI toolkit which can be deployed on many popular platforms (Android, iOS, Classic Macintosh system software, Mac OS X, Windows 98 through 10, and Linux/Unix). LiveCode directly imports extant HyperCard stacks and provides a migration path for stacks still in use.

Past products include:
* [[Guide (hypertext)|Guide]], which preceded HyperCard. [[Office Workstations Limited]] announced immediately after HyperCard's debut that version 2.0 would allow HyperCard files to work on Windows.<ref name="mace19870817">{{Cite magazine |last=Mace |first=Scott |date=1987-08-17 |title=PCs, PS/2s May Run Hypercard Soon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=true |access-date=2025-05-25 |magazine=InfoWorld |pages=1,8 |volume=9 |issue=33}}</ref>
* [[SuperCard]], the first HyperCard clone, is similar to HyperCard, but with many added features such as full color support, pixel and vector graphics, a full GUI toolkit, and support for many modern macOS features. It can create both standalone applications and projects that run on the freeware SuperCard Player. SuperCard can also convert extant HyperCard stacks into SuperCard projects. It runs only on Macs.
* [[SK8 (programming language)|SK8]] is a "HyperCard killer" developed within Apple but never released. It extends HyperTalk to allow arbitrary objects which allowed it to build complete Mac-like applications (instead of stacks). The project was never released, although the source code was placed in the public domain.
* Hyper DA by Symmetry is a Desk Accessory for classic single-tasked Mac OS that allows viewing HyperCard 1.x stacks as added windows in any extant application, and is also embedded into many Claris products (like MacDraw II) to display their user documentation.
* HyperPad from Brightbill-Roberts is a clone of HyperCard, written for [[DOS]]. It makes use of ASCII linedrawing to create the graphics of cards and buttons.
* Plus, later renamed [[WinPlus]], is similar to HyperCard, for Windows and Macintosh. [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] purchased Plus and created a cross-platform version as Oracle Card, later renamed [[Oracle Media Objects]], used as a [[4GL]] for database access.
* IBM LinkWay is a mouse-controlled HyperCard-like environment for DOS PCs. It has minimal system requirements, runs in graphics CGA and VGA. It even supported video disc control.<ref>{{cite web |title=IBM LinkWay 2.0 |url=https://archive.org/details/IBM-LinkWay}}</ref>
* Asymetrix's Windows application [[ToolBook]] resembles HyperCard, and later included an external converter to read HyperCard stacks (the first was a third-party product from Heizer software).
* TileStack is an attempt to create a web based version of HyperCard that is compatible with the original HyperCard files.<ref>{{Citation |title= HyperCard comes back from the dead to the web |newspaper= Slashdot |url= http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/08/06/07/196242.shtml |date= June 7, 2008}}</ref> The site closed down January 24, 2011.<ref>{{cite web |title= Farewell to Tilestack |url= http://tilestack.com/ |access-date= May 14, 2013 |archive-date= January 5, 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200105074030/http://tilestack.com/ |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite tweet|number=29725702500651008|user=tilestack|title=Farewell. http://tilestack.com|date=January 25, 2011}}</ref>

In addition, many of the basic concepts of the original system were later re-used in other forms. Apple built its system-wide scripting engine [[AppleScript]] on a language similar to HyperTalk; it is often used for [[desktop publishing]] (DTP) [[workflow automation]] needs.{{Citation needed|date=December 2012}} In the 1990s [[FaceSpan]] provided a third-party graphical interface. AppleScript also has a native graphical programming front-end called Automator, released with [[Mac OS X Tiger]] in April 2005. One of HyperCard's strengths was its handling of [[multimedia]], and many multimedia systems like [[Macromedia Authorware]] and [[Macromedia Director]] are based on concepts originating in HyperCard.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Keating|first1=Anne B|last2=Hargitai|first2=Joseph R|title=The Wired Professor: A Guide to Incorporating the World Wide Web in College Instruction|date=1999|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0814747254|page=[https://archive.org/details/wiredprofessorgu0000keat/page/178 178]|url=https://archive.org/details/wiredprofessorgu0000keat|url-access=registration|access-date=23 January 2016}}</ref>

[[AppWare]], originally named Serius Developer, is sometimes seen to be similar to HyperCard, as both are [[rapid application development]] (RAD) systems. AppWare was sold in the early 90s and worked on both Mac and Windows systems.

[[Zoomracks]], a DOS application with a similar "stack" database metaphor, predates HyperCard by four years, which led to a contentious lawsuit against Apple.{{cn|date=January 2022}}