Spinnaker to Bring HyperCard Clone to MS-DOS Computers
 
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
LAS VEGAS (Microbytes Daily News Service) --- Spinnaker Software
said at Comdex it will offer a hypermedia program for MS-DOS
systems that will also be compatible with Apple's HyperCard. The
new HyperCard clone for PCs, called Plus, was developed
originally by Format Software, of West Germany, and was
published in a Macintosh version last May by Oludvai.
 
Spinnaker said the DOS package will be the first of three
versions; Plus for Windows will start beta testing in
December, followed by OS/2. The company said the OS/2
version might be available before the Windows version.
 
Plus is similar to and compatible with HyperCard, but it also
has a few extensions, including painting and drawing tools.
The program comes with a scripting language and a run-time
module that allows developers to distribute their
applications.
 
Hypermedia applications developed with the Mac version of
Plus can be translated to the PC version in several ways,
depending on physical connections between the two machines.
The easiest is probably the direct transfer using Apple's
standard file exchange facility. The application and
HyperCard stack are copied to a PC-formatted disk using the
Macintosh FDHD floppy drive, which accommodates both Mac
and IBM disk formats. The user then just has to place the disk
in the PC and run the application.
 
Spinnaker did not announce the price of the new Plus for DOS,
but the current Mac version sells for $195.
 
Contact: Spinnaker Software, One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA
02139; (617) 494-1200.
 
                              --- Peter Stephenson
 
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