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HyperTalk
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===Objects, containers and scripts=== HyperCard's primary [[user interface]] concept was the ''card'', a display system that emulated an [[index card]]. Cards were normally used to store information, similar to a record in a conventional [[flat-file database]]. The graphical layout of the card was created using the mouse by placing various elements on the card, such as text fields and buttons. A master layout "card" known as the ''background'' was shown behind the transparent areas of each card. Objects placed on the background, such as fields and buttons, would be shared as a common layout among several cards, but with card-specific content.<!-- this doesn't seem to be clear enough, but not worth tagging with {clarify} --> The collection of cards, backgrounds and the associated data stored in them were stored in a single file known as the ''stack'' (of cards). Collectively, all of these data-containing objects are referred to as ''containers''. HyperTalk functions, or ''scripts'', were normally stored within the <code>script</code> property available in many of the stack's containers. Scripts could access the properties of a container, corresponding to [[instance variable]]s, using the <code>get</code> and <code>set</code> instructions. The script property held plain text and had no special properties; scripts could be placed in, and run from, any text container, including string variables,{{efn|Which, in turn, could be loaded from text files.}} or imported from other stacks using the <code>start using</code> command. A script could even be user-provided text typed into an on-screen text field. Arbitrary text could be executed using the <code>do</code> command, in a manner similar to Dynamic SQL.<ref>Erland Sommarskog and Frank Kalis, [http://www.sommarskog.se/dynamic_sql.html "The Curse and Blessings of Dynamic SQL"], 23 June 2011</ref>
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