HyperCard was a package for software development, created by Bill Atkinson, and was among the early hypermedia systems predating the World Wide Web. For Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS it combines a flat-file database with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard includes a built-in programming language called HyperTalk (written by Dan Winkler) for manipulating data and the user interface.

HyperCard users often employed it as a programming system for Rapid Application Development of different kinds of applications, database and others.

HyperCard was originally released in 1987 for $49.95 and was included free with all new Macs. It was withdrawn from sale in March 2004, having received its final update in 1998 upon the return of Steve Jobs to Apple. HyperCard runs in the Classic Environment, but was not ported to Mac OS X.

It is based on the concept of a "stack" of virtual "cards" which store data.  Each card contains a set of interactive objects, including text fields, check boxes, buttons, and similar common graphical user interface (GUI) elements. Users browse the stack by navigating from card to card, using built-in navigation features, a powerful search mechanism, or through user-created scripts. The database of HyperCard are based on the storage of the state of all of the objects on the cards it does not exist as a separate system within the HyperCard stack, the state of any object in the system is considered to be live and editable at any time. The script is a text field whose contents are interpreted in the HyperTalk language and can be edited at any time and changes are saved as soon as they were complete.

The HyperCard system comprises the following concepts: stacks, backgrounds and cards provide a form-like GUI system, the stack file provides object persistence and database-like functionality, and HyperTalk allows handlers to be written for GUI events. HyperTalk, an object oriented scripting language, had a syntax resembling casual English language and supports most standard programming structures such as "if-then" and "repeat". HyperTalk code was referred to as "scripts", a term that was considered  less daunting to novice programmers.

Kindly donated by David Exton

Platform: Apple Macintosh Plus, SE, II 2 Mb RAM  Hard disk Disk 3.5 800Kb

              Macintosh Plus Mac OS System 3.2 Finder  5.3

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Application Software (AS:) Hypermedia

Version: 1987 1.0

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