The programming language of HyperCard is HyperTalk, not applescript.
I think applescript is used for linking other applications.
The best approach for learing HyperTalk and HyperCard is to
download stacks from FTP sites and check them out. You can see the
design, as well as look at the sripts of HyperTalk under them. HyperTalk
is not "compiled" so you can always see the source code.
If you want to make a stack for storing recipes for buffers
and lab reagents, you can find several already out there on FTP sites,
or you can find a recipe stack designed for home cooking and modify it.
The home cooking stack might have more fancy stuff in it because there
is a much larger market for it than for lab-specific software.
I use the books: The Complete HyperCard Handbook 2.0 by
Danny Goodman, Bantam books; Cooking With HyperTalk by Dan Winler and
Scott Knaster, Bantam Books; and HyperProgramming: Building Interactive
Programs with HyperCard, by George Coulouris and Harold Thimbleby, Addison
Wesley Press. Two of these book came with disks that gave me tons of
HyperTalk scripts ready to go!
If you want to see a really nice molecular biology lab stack,
(actually a set of stack linked together) get the LabHelper 4.02 shareware
stack. It was written by:
Tzuen-Rong Tzeng
124 Long Hall
Dept. of Microbiology
Clemson University, SC 29634-1909
Voice: (803) 656-3057
Fax: (803) 656-1127
ttzeng at hubcap.clemson.edu
and you can get a fully functioning demo of it from the Info-Mac archives
at SumexAIM or mirrors thereof. He charges something like $50 for the
shareware fee. It is a really nice example of HyperCard for molecular
biology though. It has "modules" for restriction enzymes, caculating
radioactive decay, calcularing picoMoles of DNA per microgram of plasmid,
a lab protocol book, and much more.
There are also other good shareware and freeware (not to be confused
with "public domain") stacks available, such as one for the periodic table
of the elements. I find the "Info_Mac" sites, a site at U of Michigan
and the Indiana University FTP site to be the best sources.
Good Luck. Have Fun!
--
********************************************************************
* Brian Foley * If we knew what we were doing *
* Molecular Genetics Dept. * it wouldn't be called research *
* University of Vermont * *
********************************************************************
