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Shareware reviews for ZD Net/Mac:
Scripting and Programming

ButtonTalk 1.0
Progress XCMD (HyperCard)
SendAEData XCMD 1.3
Popup CDEF 1.0b4
RadSlider CDEF 1.0.1
SCCS UNIX 1.1
Scheme In One Defun (SIOD) 3.0

ButtonTalk 1.0
Category: Scripting & Programming/HyperCard Tools
Author: Matthew Blain

ButtonTalk is a tiny HyperCard application which helps scripters implement one simple, but impressive, feature in their stacks: the ability for users with Macs capable of speech-recognition to activate buttons by voice. It does this by creating a menu choice called "Create button menu," which then causes voice commands to be linked to buttons. This is a real power tool: an in-depth knowledge of HyperCard programming is needed to get full use of it.

Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: HYPERCARD AV VOICE CONTROL BUTTONS SPEECH
Requires: HyperCard 2.1 or later
Price: Shareware $You decide

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Progress XCMD (HyperCard)
Category: Scripting & Programming/HyperCard Tools
Author: Jay Hodgdon

Have you ever sat waiting for HyperCard to finish doing something banal -- say, count the number of times the word "the" shows up in a stack -- only to find yourself still waiting minutes later, with no sign of progress? If so, you're not alone, and to correct this annoying lack of a progress indicator, Jay Hodgdon wrote Progress XCMD, a handy little extension to HyperTalk which -- while not speeding HyperCard's infernal processing speed -- will at least let users know how much longer they have to wait.

Two types of progress indicators are available: a standard-looking "0-100%" thermometer-like bar, and a circular, pie-scale-like graphic. (Users of popular telecom programs will recognize this one, although it's not so common outside of that field.) Copious scripts are included, demonstrating how this XCMD can be used, and user interface examples are likewise included. While it's true that Progress XCMD does nothing but dress up the user interface, that's a lot: and when programming in HyperTalk, you need every interface tool you can find.

Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: script hypercard stack motion wait pause watch feedback user interface
Requires: HyperCard 2.0 or later
Price: Shareware: $5

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SendAEData XCMD 1.3
Category: Scripting & Programming/HyperCard Tools
Author: Brian Blood

With the advent of System 7.5 (and for the adventurous few, System 7 Pro), AppleScript became the scripting language de rigeur of the masses. So goes fashion, and many HyperTalk scripters have found themselves outclassed by the flexible, system-level workings of this mysterious beast. But fear not, my victims of the winds of change! SendAEData is an XCMD which bridges the gap between the two quite nicely.

Simply put, this clever command by Brian Blood allows you to pass data to any AppleScript-able application. All that's needed is the target application, the event class, the event ID and the data that you want sent (syntax: SendAEData , , , ). If your machine can understand Apple events, the message will find its way.

This XCMD takes it one step further: in the stack which carries it is an interface which reduces even this simplistic structure to button-pushing. All in all, this XCMD represents a painless transition for HyperTalk programmers to enter the new age.

Version 1.2 adds a couple of parameters, fixes a bug and altered the program's internal structure. Version 1.3 features new routines for converting AppleEvent addresses and is now no longer dependant on any host machine.

Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: script hypercard stack apple event appleevent applescript applications send text
Requires: HyperCard 2.1 or later, AppleScript
Price: Freeware

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Popup CDEF 1.0b4
Category: Scripting & Programming/Programming
Author: Ari Halberstadt

If you'd like to spice up your popup menus with icons, colors, and styled text, throw out the System CDEF and use Ari Halberstadt's Popup CDEF instead. Through it, all of the above are possible, along with enabled/disabled check box control of your menus and much more.

The package includes projects in Think C, the ResEdit resource, a sample application which shows the many ways Popup CDEF can be exploited, and wonderfully complete documentation. It's distributed under the GNU software license: if you're not familiar with the limitations of this license, please read it before using Popup CDEF in your projects.

NOTE: This CDEF differs from the System's CDEF in quite a few ways. Most of the System's CDEF calls are supported, the exception being popupTitleCenterJust, which Popup CDEF will ignore. Also note that this CDEF can not handle non-roman scripts, such as Arabic (right-to-left) or Kanji (two-byte). Read the documentation for further details.

Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: program resource pop up list menu control choice user interface color icon icons enable disable control defproc develop
Requires: Think C or similar
Price: Freeware

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RadSlider CDEF 1.0.1
Category: Scripting & Programming/Programming
Author: Jonathan Durkee

Sliders are becoming a more and more popular interface element, and RadSlider adds a few elegant touches to the genre. In particular, this CDEF is clut (color lookup table)-aware: no longer will your tinged and colorized controls go psychedelic when you use them in Photoshop filter controls!

Unfortunately, this package is just the documentation and a somewhat limited demo application. If you'd like to use the RadSlider CDEF in your programs, you'll need to hack away in ResEdit or a similar resource editor.

Rating: 2 (out of 5)
Keywords: program resource slide control choice user interface color clut control develop
Requires: ResEdit or other resource editor
Price: Freeware

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SCCS UNIX 1.1
Category: Scripting & Programming/Programming
Author: Thomas Cornwell

This short bit of programming is designed to aid programmers using the Source Code Control System on a UN*X-based system, such as Apple's AU/X. It's especially useful for keeping track of revisions, and will collect and "tag" object files for smooth compilation.

NOTE: we were unable to test this program's functioning on a true UN*X system, but the author states that it runs on HP-UX, Ultrix, SCO, AT?, AIX, and that he's currently verifying A/UX. Read the comment lines for further details.

Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: programming Source Code Control System
Requires: UN*X (such as AU/X), Source Code Control System
Price: Freeware

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Scheme In One Defun (SIOD) 3.0
Category: Scripting & Programming/Programming
Author: George Carrette, Paradigm Associates Inc.

If you're interested in learning Scheme -- or want to dabble in its particular features with only a small investment in hard drive space -- consider Scheme In One Defun/Day (SIOD), a small Scheme interpreter with many of the features of bigger interpreters. Despite its size, it includes support for:

  • lists, numbers, symbols, strings, arrays
  • string and numeric arrays compatible with C types long*, char*, double*
  • user-defined datatypes, with new types added on fly
  • hooks to reading, evaluation, printing, equal, hashing
  • a C-like environment
It also features outstanding cross-platform support: compilation is possible under VMS, Un*x, Mac, PC, and probably your portable hair dryer. The author states that he has personally run it on seven platforms, from SPARC workstations to ALPHA/VMS on DEC machines to PCs running (yech) Microsoft C. Surely it'll work on your machine!

The command-line interface is yucky, yucky, yucky, but hey! You're a programmer! You're used to such things, right? NOTE: Be sure to read the files siod.doc and slib.c as well as the "Read Me" for complete information. ZiffNet/Mac was not able to test this file in a programming environment: please contact us if you experience any problems.

Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: Scheme programming environment think
Requires: C compiler (such as Think C)
Price: Freeware

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This page was last updated on Thursday, January 05, 2012 at 6:17pm CST. All contents copyright 2005 by Tom Geller.