Comment Great for its time, but not so much anymore (Score 1) 392
HyperCard was awesome in the days of Motorola 68K-based Macs. I have super-fond memories of "programming" with it on my SE/30 or my IIsi. But the main problem is that Apple really took it as far as it can go before it just no longer became useful, or preferable to other authoring tools out there.
It's clear the Apple did neglect HyperCard to death, but this started well before Steve Jobs returned. But I don't think there was any evil conspiracy behind its demise; I simply think HyperCard ran its course. The neglect is that they hardly made the final version available for sale. If you could find it for sale on their old, "ore-Apple Store" online web store, you could order it. This was the version we had all been waiting for, with full color stack support, and the ability to embed QuickTime media objects (pictures, movies, etc.).
Well, I found it on the site, ordered it...it came on something like 14 floppy disks, which I imaged into the old Disk Copy-style
Yes, HyperCard may have helped inspire the web, but the web overtook it. On the Mac, more powerful tools like AppleScript Studio and XCode offered *real* development opportunities, making HyperCard look quaint.
Sure, I get HyperCard nostalgia from time to time, too. So I got me a demo copy of Runtime Revolution, which picks up HyperCard where Apple left off, and adds a whole bunch of modern niceties. Sadly. the whole "stack" concept still seems antiquated and quaint, even with modern tools.
Sorry folks, reviving HyperCard is not the answer. The answer is a new pseudo-development environment and corresponding runtime that is super-easy for non-programmers to pick up. Something we haven't seen yet, not something based on old paradigms.