Existing users, 
 HyperNext Studio - 3.83beginner's cross-platform software creation tool |
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Feedback Summary:
| This Version: | |||||
| Overall Rating: | Not rated (0.0) | Features: | Not rated (0.0) | Support: | Not rated (0.0) |
| Ease of Use: | Not rated (0.0) | Quality / Stability: | Not rated (0.0) | Price: | Not rated (0.0) |
Key to Types of Feedback:
Reviews 
Troubleshooting 
Usage Tips 
Developer Notes 
Commentary 
Featured Reviews
All Feedback: 1 - 7 of 7
Links Working & Only MOSX Player Included, Therefore... - Version: 3.83, 1/14/2008 09:40AM PST
zunipus
The link from VersionTracker is now working. All links at the developer download page work as well.
The 'Full' HyperNext Studio OS X installation image includes ONLY the Mac OS X player application. You must go to the Download page of the developer's website to get the Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS 9 players.
Emphasis: This entire package of stuff is now 100% freeware now and forever. Thank the developer! A lot of work has been put into this since the early versions, so it is worth checking out. It certainly isn't professional development, but it's useful for learning some basics. And its cross-platform capability is such a great progressive idea. Kudos to TigaByte.
:-D
The 'Full' HyperNext Studio OS X installation image includes ONLY the Mac OS X player application. You must go to the Download page of the developer's website to get the Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS 9 players.
Emphasis: This entire package of stuff is now 100% freeware now and forever. Thank the developer! A lot of work has been put into this since the early versions, so it is worth checking out. It certainly isn't professional development, but it's useful for learning some basics. And its cross-platform capability is such a great progressive idea. Kudos to TigaByte.
:-D
Where IS it? - Version: 3.83, 1/13/2008 05:26PM PST
macdad614
Went to the developer's site and selected download -- for the smaller Player first.
RESULT:
Error 502: /fcgi-bin/php/binaries/HyperNextPlayer.dmg.php is not found at this location
Back to www.tigabyte.com homepage
Document: /fcgi-bin/php/binaries/HyperNextPlayer.dmg.php
Time: Monday, 14-Jan-08 00:11:54 GMT
Remote host: 66.56.59.24
RESULT:
Error 502: /fcgi-bin/php/binaries/HyperNextPlayer.dmg.php is not found at this location
Back to www.tigabyte.com homepage
Document: /fcgi-bin/php/binaries/HyperNextPlayer.dmg.php
Time: Monday, 14-Jan-08 00:11:54 GMT
Remote host: 66.56.59.24
Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies
- Where IS it?
Downloading - Version: 3.83, 1/13/2008 02:02PM PST
(0 of 1 users found this comment useful)
ppsphil
Can someone please explain to me why this Download runs at around 10-15 kb ps (and that is both from Version Tracker and the Developer's site! And it's not my system 'cause I just finished downloading another programme from Version Tracker and it ran at 130-150 kb ps!!
I mean I'd sure like to play around with this thing, especially if it now really is "Freeware" but
I'm sure not going to wait for 40 minutes to an hour for it to download!!!!!!
I mean I'd sure like to play around with this thing, especially if it now really is "Freeware" but
I'm sure not going to wait for 40 minutes to an hour for it to download!!!!!!
Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies
HyperNext Creator - just starting 
- Version: 1.12, 2/12/2004 03:02AM PST
(17 of 17 users found this comment useful)
Will Smith
Ease of use
From their description HyperNext sounds very much like HyperCard and when the Creator is first loaded up it does indeed have some similarities. For example, buttons, fields and backgrounds are easy to add to cards. There are differences though and once you start creating some software these show up. Its not possible to load or convert HyperCard stacks as the language syntax is quite different and this makes it difficult, if not impossible to migrate HyperCard software.
The Card metaphor of software creation is easy to grasp and for many types of software will be a natural way to go. HyperNext is clearly aimed at beginners and if you take a beginners viewpoint then HyperNext make sense. Its debatable though how this will scale up for large software projects.
Using HyperNext is quite easy and I like the way a card can be pre-viewed to see the runtime layout. Even better, the Command + R keys run the project within the Creator so allowing rapid development. Unlike HyperCard, HyperNext cannot run a specific card and always starts with the Home card. The interface is getting better but could still do with some tidying up. I have a registered version and building a final stack or application is simply done from the menu. Stacks can be small, just a few kilobytes but applications are very large starting at about 9 MB.
Language
This is something you will probably either love or hate. Its easy to get started but most programmers, including myself, prefer stricter control of variable declarations. HyperNext variable declarations don’t have types and can be placed anywhere within a script which can lead to sloppy programming. On the other hand if you are a beginner and just want to get things running then this might be fine as it allows scripts to be quickly built. On the downside it must make maintainance difficult for large projects. Learning the HyperNext language is made easier by the online help on the menu bar but like the documentation it needs improving. It has sections on just about everything but often the keywords only have a simple description and often don’t include examples.
Expandability
They don’t say how large projects can be although 2 billion cards is mentioned somwhere. As with HyperCard, AppleScripts can be run from within HyperNext but the AppleScript project/stack demo doesn’t explain much. An interesting feature is REALbasic scripting where sections of code can written in REALbasic and run at high speed within HyperNext, again the demo stack doesn’t explain much. HyperNext can be expanded using the HyperNext Developer which writes plugins for the Creator. Allowing third parties to easily add extensions to HyperNext seems a great idea.
Reliability
Early versions had many bugs both in the HyperNext language and in the script editor. This latest version, 1.12, seems to have finally sorted these out and so far I haven’t had any crashes or encountered any more bugs. Earlier versions had an external editor which was very cumbersome whereas the new editor is quick and easy to use although its find/replace is still restricted to the current script and cannot perform global find/replace. The editor also has no syntax coloring and so looks dated even though the text/paper colors can be changed. The script editor is automatically invoked when a compile error is detected but some error messages are hard to understand.
Documentation
The documentation is a weak point and really needs improving. The QuickStart PDF guide only covers the basics and still does not give a list of keywords. If you need the keyord list then you have to use the online help.
Cost
For personal use the price of $24.95 seems right especially when compared to most other software creation tools which several times this.
Conclusions
A good attempt at giving beginners access to programming but HyperNext does need more examples and better documentation.
Pros
Easy access to programming for beginners.
Powerful and expandable.
Priced right.
Cons
Weak documentation, especially for beginners.
Few examples and demo stacks available.
From their description HyperNext sounds very much like HyperCard and when the Creator is first loaded up it does indeed have some similarities. For example, buttons, fields and backgrounds are easy to add to cards. There are differences though and once you start creating some software these show up. Its not possible to load or convert HyperCard stacks as the language syntax is quite different and this makes it difficult, if not impossible to migrate HyperCard software.
The Card metaphor of software creation is easy to grasp and for many types of software will be a natural way to go. HyperNext is clearly aimed at beginners and if you take a beginners viewpoint then HyperNext make sense. Its debatable though how this will scale up for large software projects.
Using HyperNext is quite easy and I like the way a card can be pre-viewed to see the runtime layout. Even better, the Command + R keys run the project within the Creator so allowing rapid development. Unlike HyperCard, HyperNext cannot run a specific card and always starts with the Home card. The interface is getting better but could still do with some tidying up. I have a registered version and building a final stack or application is simply done from the menu. Stacks can be small, just a few kilobytes but applications are very large starting at about 9 MB.
Language
This is something you will probably either love or hate. Its easy to get started but most programmers, including myself, prefer stricter control of variable declarations. HyperNext variable declarations don’t have types and can be placed anywhere within a script which can lead to sloppy programming. On the other hand if you are a beginner and just want to get things running then this might be fine as it allows scripts to be quickly built. On the downside it must make maintainance difficult for large projects. Learning the HyperNext language is made easier by the online help on the menu bar but like the documentation it needs improving. It has sections on just about everything but often the keywords only have a simple description and often don’t include examples.
Expandability
They don’t say how large projects can be although 2 billion cards is mentioned somwhere. As with HyperCard, AppleScripts can be run from within HyperNext but the AppleScript project/stack demo doesn’t explain much. An interesting feature is REALbasic scripting where sections of code can written in REALbasic and run at high speed within HyperNext, again the demo stack doesn’t explain much. HyperNext can be expanded using the HyperNext Developer which writes plugins for the Creator. Allowing third parties to easily add extensions to HyperNext seems a great idea.
Reliability
Early versions had many bugs both in the HyperNext language and in the script editor. This latest version, 1.12, seems to have finally sorted these out and so far I haven’t had any crashes or encountered any more bugs. Earlier versions had an external editor which was very cumbersome whereas the new editor is quick and easy to use although its find/replace is still restricted to the current script and cannot perform global find/replace. The editor also has no syntax coloring and so looks dated even though the text/paper colors can be changed. The script editor is automatically invoked when a compile error is detected but some error messages are hard to understand.
Documentation
The documentation is a weak point and really needs improving. The QuickStart PDF guide only covers the basics and still does not give a list of keywords. If you need the keyord list then you have to use the online help.
Cost
For personal use the price of $24.95 seems right especially when compared to most other software creation tools which several times this.
Conclusions
A good attempt at giving beginners access to programming but HyperNext does need more examples and better documentation.
Pros
Easy access to programming for beginners.
Powerful and expandable.
Priced right.
Cons
Weak documentation, especially for beginners.
Few examples and demo stacks available.
Most Recent Replies: View All 2 Replies
Like hypercard, only completely different, and not as good - Version: 1.1, 2/4/2004 05:49AM PST
(2 of 2 users found this comment useful)
Brennan Young
While I applaud the initiative, I wonder why anyone would use this oddball instead of pretty much anything else. It might have inherited some of the structures of hypercard, but you can't test your project directly in authoring - there's some kind of 'compile' step. Horrible non-standard GUI, for example the scripting GUI hides the layout windows. You have to run one app for coding and another one for layout.
With the chosen name they are inviting comparison with hypercard, but this will not appeal to *Card users at all. It is very far from the Hypercard development cycle. I'm all for new and diverse authoring tools - the more the merrier - but I don't get this at all. It's almost like IDEs were never invented.
Maybe if they could integrate all the various components into a single app it might have a chance. As it is, xCode/Appelscript studio is free, and actually easier to use, metacard/Runrev/supercard/faceSpan are all truer to the Hypercard metaphor.
With the chosen name they are inviting comparison with hypercard, but this will not appeal to *Card users at all. It is very far from the Hypercard development cycle. I'm all for new and diverse authoring tools - the more the merrier - but I don't get this at all. It's almost like IDEs were never invented.
Maybe if they could integrate all the various components into a single app it might have a chance. As it is, xCode/Appelscript studio is free, and actually easier to use, metacard/Runrev/supercard/faceSpan are all truer to the Hypercard metaphor.
Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies
I tried several sample stacks (programs) and they all crashed HyperNext- it froze and refused to function. Force Quit was the only way out. Even the Home stack caused a crash and it does nothing.
Today I am searching the 'net for some sign of developer activity in the last year (no luck so far). It appears to be another dead HyperCard clone project, and possibly the last one. So much work went into it; so much potential sits there; it's enough to break your heart.
Using iMac/Intel/OS 10.4.11