From Page to Screen - WRAP: Warwick Research Archive Portal ...

In the above example of a HyperCard version of Hamlet, freely distributed as shareware",
a mouse-click on any of the scenes on the right leads to its text, clicking on the small
icons along the bottom would (from left to right) jump to a help file, back to the
homecard of the user, open a note-taking facility (a blank box which can be filled with
up to 30k of text) and lastly a bookmarking facility. Click on Act 3 Scene One and you
will see:
HAMLET: iJ, be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir 10, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
Forin that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must gi.ve us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Hamlet: Actm.SreneI
Facilities here include buttons to print out the scene (second from left), to move around
within the scene-stack (middle arrow) and within the whole text. Clicking on the eye­
icon will allow to find any word or phrase in the text.
There are many advantages to HyperCard: It uses a familiar notecards metaphor; it is easy
to create simple applications, but it is also possible to create more complex applications
with the help of relatively easy to learn scripting language, Hyperttalk.. On the downside
it lacks an overview function. It has the "Homecard", the first and main card in the stack,
32 I found this example on the MacFormat Cover CD-ROM, February 1997·
Chapter 1 - page I.