1998-07-23|Philosophical Analysis of xTalk Languages
To HyperCarders
Disclaimer: This story is my personal interpretation, which may contain some inaccuracies. It is intended to be a food for thought, so flames are not welcome.
Once upon a time, some brilliant minds at Apple conceived of something extraordinary called HyperTalk with an English-like syntax. There was nothing else like it on the planet to give power to non-programmers. With enthusiasm from a great number of people, HyperTalk flourished for a few years. Unfortunately, Apple neglected to develop the language, so sons and daughters of HyperTalk (e.g., SuperTalk, MetaTalk, Lingo) were born out of necessity. Over the years, they evolved and grew incompatible with one another (e.g., "speak" versus "say").
Apple's original vision was to extend HyperTalk and make it a system-level scripting language. Apple, as an organisation of many bright people but not so co-ordinated among them, created a Renaissance language called AppleScript whose creators were influenced by LISP. It was a great object-oriented language, but had key differences with HyperTalk (e.g., "result", "it"), which confused the users. Even worse, it led to so-called Spaghetti Script (a mixture of HyperTalk and AppleScript languages requiring "& quote & return &" in the "do ... as AppleScript" command). HyperCard scripts could be written in HyperTalk, AppleScript or others, but only in one language at a time, requiring a dummy button/field/card/stack. Moreover, AppleScript could not be debugged within HyperCard. Unfortunately, Apple neglected to develop AppleScript, too.
Each xTalk language had its share of followers, creating factional rivalries. In the mean time, the true competition was MicroSloth VisualBasic, which inspired RealBasic for the Macintosh. HyperTalk experienced a Reformation (PowerPC native), and grass-roots users were making Crusades (e.g., anniversary stack, success stories, mailing campaign) in order to make HyperTalk Resurrection a reality. There was even a talk of Reunification of SuperTalk with HyperTalk, and Rebirth with SerfTalk. There were also some Evangelists and Prophets predicting either Heaven, R.I.P., or Gloom and Doom of HyperTalk. It is almost a Miracle that HyperTalk has survived for 10 years.
The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has chosen QuickTime as the basis for MPEG-4, the next-generation multimedia standard. Thus, HyperCard 3.0 and QuickTime Interactive with Q-Code have become a Salvation, and put HyperTalk back to the glory that it deserves!
If you substitute "xTalk" with "UNIX/C", "Roman Empire" or "Christianity" (e.g., VisualBasic -> Catholic; RealBasic -> Anglican; SuperTalk, MetaTalk, SerfTalk, Lingo, AppleScript -> Protestant denominations), one would realise that such devolutions have occurred since the beginning of human civilisation...
Here is a comment about the Internet: "One bad thing about the Internet is it's everything. How can you describe something that is everything?" Try substituting "Internet" with "HyperCard" to realise what HyperCard is.
The fate of HyperTalk could be compared with Latin, which is a dead language. However, Latin is used extensively by the academia for scientific names. Latin is also used by the legal and medical professions, among others.
