This article is about a journey that started in the early 1970s, that has no itinerary and no foreseeable end.
The Journey Starts
The f...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
I like your perspective. Thanks for the post!
There are still many low-latency high-throughput applications that the web is fundamentally poorly suited for. For example, multitrack audio recording, where 10msec latency is unacceptable, really needs to run locally. Running locally doesn't necessarily exclude the browser as a platform, though. Do expect these types of mostly non-web applications to move to the browser platform as well, just following the trend?
I think I made it as a throwaway comment, but now I look again and yes, it's certainly a possibility. After all, do we really care what the operating system is or what it's doing as long as it delivers the goods?
Actually you can do a lot of work in 10ms, even in JavaScript. The latency of the OS is a lot more of an issue, whether the app is browser based or a non-web application. Recordings have to go somewhere, data is written in large blocks and most systems are only designed for human perception of latency.
Moving the OS into the 'browser' (which can't really be called that in such a scenario) blurs the line between OS and App so I wouldn't rule out functionally real-time performance being possible. How far forward am I permitted to look?
The concept of a "computer" may itself be only temporary. Some Facebook users think they don't use the Internet; in their minds they've bought a single-purpose appliance. This effective reductio ad absurdum leads to various different types of single-purpose machine, each being a different build of a common platform. Who knows?
Great article, I discovered HyperTalk thanks to you, and I think this is where the web development, but also programing in a general manner, should go.
Did you published a version of your HyperTalk emulator? I would be glad to try it!
Hi!
Thanks for your encouraging comments. Sometimes it gets a bit lonely doing things differently to everyone else.
I'd be reluctant to call EasyCoder a HyperTalk emulator - far from me to put myself in the same league as Bill Atkinson. What I've done is apply some of the same principles.
EasyCoder is not a stand-alone product; it's a plugin for WordPress, so to use it you'll need to set up a website. My next articles will explain how to do this.
There's a lot of information on the EasyCoder website and all the code is on GitHub. I'm quite happy to answer as many questions as you'd like to ask; my preferred eventual means of communication is Slack as it lets any number of people join in.
BTW, if you really want a stand-alone HyperTalk emulator (as opposed to a web solution) there are products like Revolution and LiveCode that were also inspired by the same great forerunner.
Nice post!
I remember HyperCard, it was really my first intro into doing something with my old mac, other than drawing pictures.
I totally agree with your points of view and have really enjoyed your perspective.
Javascript is really become more confusing and the more people are jumping on board, the more ‘frameworks and tools’ are being thrown into the pool.
But I have for a while now thought that the ultimate solution would be something completely new and removed from the old way of doing things, not mere an evolution of the previous.
Thank you. Your comment and those of the others are encouraging me to continue a little further along the same lines. There's no shortage of technically-oriented articles on software engineering so I try to apply some balance by placing more emphasis on the human side of things.
My concern is particularly that too many people with lesser technical skills (among whom I number myself) are being excluded from contributing at a time when there is a vast and growing amount to be done. The reactions I'm getting to my articles help dispell the fear that I'm just wasting the time of professionals by writing about things the way I do.