Does a modern equivalent of HyperCard exist?
May 1, 2024 2:26 PM Subscribe
I remember being introduced to HyperCard in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Does a modern day equivalent exist?
My son is 11 and his school uses Scratch to learn basic programming concepts.
I remember being introduced to HyperCard in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Does a modern day equivalent exist?
Caveat: I’m a marketer, not a coder (said in my best “Bones” McCoy voice). But I thought this would be a fun father-son thing to learn together and help expand his coding skills.
My son is 11 and his school uses Scratch to learn basic programming concepts.
I remember being introduced to HyperCard in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Does a modern day equivalent exist?
Caveat: I’m a marketer, not a coder (said in my best “Bones” McCoy voice). But I thought this would be a fun father-son thing to learn together and help expand his coding skills.
I don't think so.
The first program I ever got paid for was written in HyperCard. So easy to use, so flexible...
Led me to many years of being a programmer. I'd wager there are web-frameworks that do the same kind of things these days, but they are not going to be as straightforward as HyperCard was.
posted by Windopaene at 2:37 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
The first program I ever got paid for was written in HyperCard. So easy to use, so flexible...
Led me to many years of being a programmer. I'd wager there are web-frameworks that do the same kind of things these days, but they are not going to be as straightforward as HyperCard was.
posted by Windopaene at 2:37 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
SuperCard is a direct descendant of hypercard (and even supports hypercard conversion). However, it's a 32 bit app and it looks like they have no plans to transition to 64bit, so you can't run it on modern macs.
Something in a similar vein, although without the easy to use templates, would be the Squeak or Pharo smalltalk systems.
posted by dis_integration at 2:47 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
Something in a similar vein, although without the easy to use templates, would be the Squeak or Pharo smalltalk systems.
posted by dis_integration at 2:47 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
~20 years ago in High School we used LOGO, which looks like there's now an online version of it.
Which I guess isn't that close to HyperCard, but for the programming end of things might be interesting.
posted by gregr at 2:48 PM on May 1
Which I guess isn't that close to HyperCard, but for the programming end of things might be interesting.
posted by gregr at 2:48 PM on May 1
There's a project called Decker that is basically an exact recreation of HyperCard with some new features, browser support, and a new scripting language. I've played around with it a little and it's pretty cool!
posted by theodolite at 2:50 PM on May 1 [12 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 2:50 PM on May 1 [12 favorites]
It looks like there is a program called LiveCode which attempts to be a spiritual successor to Hypercard.
posted by blob at 3:22 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
posted by blob at 3:22 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
If your goal is to just teach basic programming concepts, and not specifically to build Hypercard-like decks, maybe take a look at something like the P5.js editor. P5.js is primarily used for graphics programming, but it's javascript at it's core, so you're learning a real language, with real world value. The online editor gives you a simple and complete development environment in your browser to write and run your programs, plus storage space to save them. Lots of tutorials and samples are available too.
posted by spudsilo at 3:53 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
posted by spudsilo at 3:53 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
If by "modern day HyperCard equivalent" you mean "relatively beginner-friendly programming environment" and not a literal clone of HyperCard, the standard answer would probably be Python.
There's a million tutorials and tutorial sites for Python, I just picked the W3Schools site mostly at random. I personally like the "Think Python - How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" book, especially because it introduces the Turtle module and lets you use Python to make some fun pretty graphics fairly early on, but the style might be a little heavy for an 11 year old.
posted by Reverend John at 3:55 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
There's a million tutorials and tutorial sites for Python, I just picked the W3Schools site mostly at random. I personally like the "Think Python - How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" book, especially because it introduces the Turtle module and lets you use Python to make some fun pretty graphics fairly early on, but the style might be a little heavy for an 11 year old.
posted by Reverend John at 3:55 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
maybe not *quite* what you are looking for in that it's more wysiwyg, but check out mmm.page
posted by wowenthusiast at 4:14 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
posted by wowenthusiast at 4:14 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
A bit more Googling brought up Decker from BeyondLoom and HyperNext Studio from TigaByte
posted by kschang at 4:28 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
posted by kschang at 4:28 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
I'm a dinosaur from the ’90s, but to me the descendant of Hypercard is the web page with Javascript. I have in fact redone several Hypercard stacks into web pages. The basic idea is there: put text and graphics on a page, add programming to things you want to be dynamic.
posted by zompist at 4:56 PM on May 1 [3 favorites]
posted by zompist at 4:56 PM on May 1 [3 favorites]
If one wants to make a bit of interactive fiction... maybe TWINE? https://twinery.org/
posted by kschang at 7:04 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
posted by kschang at 7:04 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
Actually, I just recalled that TinyBASIC and QBASIC derivative QB64 are still available.
But Scratch is kinda the modern recommendation for kid friendly programming stuff.
posted by kschang at 7:20 PM on May 1
But Scratch is kinda the modern recommendation for kid friendly programming stuff.
posted by kschang at 7:20 PM on May 1
For anyone else interested - looks like you x-posted this on HackerNews with some success! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40229549
posted by mattdini at 9:02 PM on May 1
posted by mattdini at 9:02 PM on May 1
Came to mention LiveCode—if memory serves at some point they would give you a license if you could prove you own/owned HyperCard.
There is also HTMX, but that's more of a 'hypermedia' revival in the Landow sense.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 AM on May 2
There is also HTMX, but that's more of a 'hypermedia' revival in the Landow sense.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:59 AM on May 2
LiveCode is the closest spiritual successor that's not just "Hypercard frozen in amber" the way Decker is (not that there's anything wrong with that!). I used Hypercard a lot, but I could never quite bond with LiveCode. Probably just me though.
Another thing to look at might be Glitch.
posted by adamrice at 5:38 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
Another thing to look at might be Glitch.
posted by adamrice at 5:38 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
I havent used Downpour but it was described as being like Hypercard http://downpour.games/
posted by karasu at 5:43 AM on May 2
posted by karasu at 5:43 AM on May 2
Some things that I have looked at (for my younger kid in the future) that capture some of the aspects of being fun, easy to use, teaching programming concepts, and light on annoyances of fiddly syntax:
AgentCubes/AgentSheets " Create your world, draw your assets, and code your game. Our simple drag and drop interface and built-in conversational programming allow easy learning that teachers and students love."
Alice: "The easy to use drag and drop interface makes programming easy and can even help you transition to a text based language."
A variant/successor to Alice called Looking Glass: "... a programming environment for ages 10 and up. With Looking Glass, you can create and share animated stories, simple games, and even virtual pets."
Out of left field: Pictotron. This "is a Fantasy Workstation for making pixelart games, animations, music, demos and other curiosities. It has a toy operating system designed to be a cosy creative space," The downside is that it is traditional coding, it's still in alpha, and there aren't great tutorials out (yet). But it's a super vibrant community (building off of Pico-8) and tons of fun. Lots of free content to play with and learn from is coming out every day, and it's accelerating. In addition to learning aspects of a real modern scripting language that is widely used (Lua), it will also teach command line concepts and how unix-ish operating systems work. Can't hurt to show the kiddo now, but may be better suited in a year or two.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:50 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
AgentCubes/AgentSheets " Create your world, draw your assets, and code your game. Our simple drag and drop interface and built-in conversational programming allow easy learning that teachers and students love."
Alice: "The easy to use drag and drop interface makes programming easy and can even help you transition to a text based language."
A variant/successor to Alice called Looking Glass: "... a programming environment for ages 10 and up. With Looking Glass, you can create and share animated stories, simple games, and even virtual pets."
Out of left field: Pictotron. This "is a Fantasy Workstation for making pixelart games, animations, music, demos and other curiosities. It has a toy operating system designed to be a cosy creative space," The downside is that it is traditional coding, it's still in alpha, and there aren't great tutorials out (yet). But it's a super vibrant community (building off of Pico-8) and tons of fun. Lots of free content to play with and learn from is coming out every day, and it's accelerating. In addition to learning aspects of a real modern scripting language that is widely used (Lua), it will also teach command line concepts and how unix-ish operating systems work. Can't hurt to show the kiddo now, but may be better suited in a year or two.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:50 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]
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posted by advicepig at 2:33 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]