Tool by Bill Atkinson, Dan Winkler, HyperCard team at Apple (1987 – 2004)
HyperCard is a software erector set that lets non-programmers put together interactive information — Bill Atkinson, Computer Chronicles (1987)
HyperCard’s biggest win was a very low entry threshold for those who wanted to build their own ‘stacks’ - combinations of user interface, code, and persistent data. There were plenty of examples to suggest ideas, and all the code was open for tweaking. — Tim Oren, A Eulogy for HyperCard (2004)
I recently learned that Hypercard was a factor in the development of Tcl/Tk.
From the preface of “Tcl and the Tk Tookit” by John Ousterhout:
Tk was also born of frustration. The basic idea for Tk arose in response to Apple’s announcement of HyperCard in the fall of 1987. HyperCard generated tremendous excitement because of the power of the system and the way in which it allowed many different interactive elements to be scripted and work together. However, I was discouraged. The HyperCard system had obviously taken a large development effort, and it seemed unlikely to me that a small group such as a university research project could ever mount such a massive effort. This suggested that we would not be able to participate in the development of new forms of interactive software in the future.
