There should seriously be a graduate class devoted to watching Steve Jobs speak. I'm watching this and I know he's full of it.
Hypercard was as big as Flash? Come on!
But as I watch him I'm totally buying it. Even though I know he's full of it. I KNOW IT. Yet I watch him and I'm shaking my head going "Yeah, I can see your point". Amazing
Was Jobs saying that, in terms of market-share of like platforms (as in other frameworks that filled the same niche), that Hypercard was as big as Flash?
"in its day", it was in a way. It enabled primary school teachers to create interesting software, something that Flash doesn't.
Flash needs a specialized editor. Most HyperCard stacks were editable directly, pretty much like plain html files, so it was very easy for non-programmers to learn to modify/create HyperCard stacks.
HyperCard had a huge number of extensions for doing even the weirdest stuff on the Mac. In Flash, you can access the camera and microphone, but you can't access the serial port. With HC extension you could, and the extension could be embedded inside the stack.
I don't think Flash sells computers. HyperCard did in schools, because the teachers were able to create education material with it. (The users who want Flash thinks everybody does, but the number of Flash wanting geeks is dwarfed by the number of people who doesn't care.)
I assumed he meant in terms of importance or developer fondness rather than in terms of market share. HyperCard was shelved because Objective-C does objects better and because HTML does hyperlinks better.
Lemme go watch these on my iPad....oh wait...they're all flash...
In all seriousness, his whole explanation on Flash is one I wish he had given originally. It's simple, makes sense, pragmatic, etc. Miles better than "thoughts on Flash".
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 33.9 ms ] threadHypercard was as big as Flash? Come on!
But as I watch him I'm totally buying it. Even though I know he's full of it. I KNOW IT. Yet I watch him and I'm shaking my head going "Yeah, I can see your point". Amazing
Jobs: An even more popular development environment was Hypercard and we were ok to axe that.
Mossberg: It wasn't more popular than Flash was
Jobs: In it's day sure it was
Mossberg: On your platform right?
Jobs: No, No, No, No, No. Hypercard was huge in it's day because it was accessible to anybody.
To me it seems like Mossberg was trying to give him the opportunity to hedge or to clarify the statement and Jobs didn't take it.
Flash needs a specialized editor. Most HyperCard stacks were editable directly, pretty much like plain html files, so it was very easy for non-programmers to learn to modify/create HyperCard stacks.
HyperCard had a huge number of extensions for doing even the weirdest stuff on the Mac. In Flash, you can access the camera and microphone, but you can't access the serial port. With HC extension you could, and the extension could be embedded inside the stack.
I don't think Flash sells computers. HyperCard did in schools, because the teachers were able to create education material with it. (The users who want Flash thinks everybody does, but the number of Flash wanting geeks is dwarfed by the number of people who doesn't care.)
I assumed he meant in terms of importance or developer fondness rather than in terms of market share. HyperCard was shelved because Objective-C does objects better and because HTML does hyperlinks better.
In all seriousness, his whole explanation on Flash is one I wish he had given originally. It's simple, makes sense, pragmatic, etc. Miles better than "thoughts on Flash".