Re: Developers tools?

[Duane Morin <dmorin@tiac.net>]

> These tools  must  be  something  visual,  because  educational
> programs are multimedia oriented. And I hope you all agree that
> multimedia applications can be best written/drawen with  visual
> tools.

I don't necessarily agree that all educational programs need to be 
multimedia oriented, though (kinda like saying all books need to have
pictures, isn't it?)

What's your feeling on web-delivered tools?  Tools like ColdFusion or PHP
allow you to add database connectivity and persistence to web pages, which
I think could represent your concept of a 'card'?  Forgive my ignorance, 
I know what Hypercard is, but have never coded in it.  You need the ability
to build a 'page' that contains content, manipulate and 
store that content, and branch appropriately to a variety of pages based on 
content manipulation or straight eventhandling (i.e. buttons).  Is that
about right?  Or did I oversimplify it?

Sounds like if there was a good tool to add the persistent data to the web
pages, and a scripting language to tie them together, then you'd have an
entire wealth of webbuilder tools on which to draw in order to get the 
visual component.

> Don't tell me 'true programmers don't use visual tools'! Visual
> products/user interfaces, imho, are best made with visual tools
> + powerful scripting language.

Well no fair, you speak ill of my chosen language (Java) but then say
I can't defend it.  I've always been a member of the "True programmers
realize that the more layers you put between the machine and the user, the
less flexibility you get in the long run" school of thought.  I like visual
tools, but they're no more than prototypers for me - they write a percentage
of the code.  But I do most definitely look at, and edit, their output.
I don't use them for the finished product.

> Just hear alittle HyperTalk:

I didn't understand your example.  What did it do, shuffle through cards and 
create a score based on the contents of a field on the card?  There's nothing
inherently obvious about any computer language.  It's all a matter of what 
you learn first, which creates your expectations for future languages.

Duane