TweetFollow Us on Twitter

HyperCom
Volume Number:7
Issue Number:6
Column Tag:Tools of the Trade

HyperCom: HC 2.0 Networking

By Dave Kelly, MacTutor Editorial Board

HyperCom™: HyperCard 2.0 Network

Communications the easy way!

HyperCard has invaded the AppleTalk network with HyperCom™ 2.0 from GAVA Corporation. HyperCom is so easy to use that it seems like a natural part of HyperTalk. In fact, HyperCom is a set of extendable XCMDs and XFCNs that take care of all the details of network communications. All that’s left for you is to develop your own HyperTalk scripts to create network software for nearly any purpose.

The best thing about HyperCom is how much fun you can have with it. Programming with HyperCom is not a drudgery; it doesn’t leave you with hours trying to figure how to get it to work. It’s simplicity is the key. There is only one XCMD that is used to communicate with other HyperCom users over AppleTalk.

HyperCard 2.0’s ability to open multiple windows at the same time makes it possible to use HyperCom’s XCMDs and XFCNs without moving them to your stack. You can set up your stack to include the HyperCom stack in the current inheritance path by using the HyperTalk command:

start using stack HyperCom

This statement allows you to access handlers in the HyperCom stack without having to modify your Home stack or your copy of HyperCard.

HyperCom has one command, “Tell”. “Tell” has three special forms that can be used to find the names of other registered HyperCom users. 1) tell who puts a delimited list of all HyperCom users on the network into “the result”. Your scripts can evaluate the list in “the result” to decide who you want to send your message to. 2) tell whom shows a pop-up menu with all the HyperCom users listed. It returns the selected user name in “the result”. 3) tell whol brings up a dialog box with a list of all HyperCom users on the network. One or more users may be selected and returned in “the result”.

Once you know who you will be sending the message to, you use “Tell” and the name (or names) of the users and send your message or messages. In my example, I use tell whol to ask for a network user.

 tell whol,,”Set clock of which Mac:”

Then I use the following lines to tell the user to execute the XCMD “SetTimeDate” installed in the user’s stack.

--1

 put the result into them
 put the seconds into standardtime
 tell them, “SetTimeDate”, standardtime

The purpose of my example is to use HyperCom communications to synchronize the clock on every computer on the network with a single computer. Since HyperCard doesn’t have a command to set the clock, I made one. The Pascal source code is included at the end of this column. After the XCMD is compiled and installed into a stack, clicking on a single button brings up the user list to select which users’ clock you want to set. Then the script gets the time from the HyperTalk seconds function and sends it to the user with the command to use the SetTimeDate XCMD to set the clock.

Each copy of HyperCom is serialized and set up for a specific number of users. The basic HyperCom package supports 2 users, but there is technically no limit on the number of users. HyperCom has been used at sites with as many as 600 users over several zones. Some schools have 40-50 users on a single zone. HyperCom does not get slowed down with more users. Yet, it makes sense that if the implementation uses a single server, where the server seeks information and sends it back to the requesting station, that the speed would be affected. Of course, then, the speed is dependent on how long it takes to process each query. Database types of applications with 10-20 users are not uncommon. HyperCom does queue up messages, and allows long scripts to execute new messages to be executed by calling “Tell” in the body of the handler. Because the limitation with HyperCom is not with the network traffic, speed problems can be solved by distributing the data or processing on several machines, or using faster processors.

GAVA also provides other XCMDs and XFCNs that can be used to extend the capabilities of HyperCom. These are very useful efficiency savers. For example, with the sendResource XCMD, the SetTimeDate XCMD could be sent to the user, used to set the clock, then deleted when done. I don’t have the sendResource XCMD so I couldn’t try it. The sendFileXCMD sends files over the network. The sendSound XCMD sends a sound to be played by the receiving machine. Other commands include sendCard, sendClipboard, sendScreen and the question XFCN to evaluate expressions on a remote Macintosh.

The manual for HyperCom is brief (29 pages) and get right to the point, but since the commands are simple not much explanation is required. It does a good job in telling what the tell command does, but it leaves out a few minor details. For example, it didn’t say what to expect if the user didn’t select any users, but used the cancel button instead. Since HyperCom is simple to use, these omissions can be figured out without too much trouble.

There are some sample stacks included with HyperCom. On of the examples is a network checkers game. My son really loved that one. The examples were designed to give you some ideas of what HyperCom can do.

HyperCom is ideally suited for anyone that needs network communication capability in HyperCard. Happy Networking!

HyperCom™ is available from:

GAVA Corporation

1001 4th Ave Plaza, Suite 3200

Seattle, WA. 98154

Phone: 800-767-0647 or 206-223-4282

FAX 206-223-0653

AppleLink GAVA

InterNet: GAVA@applelink.apple.com

CompuServe: 76174,221

GENIE: GAVA

Prices:

HyperCom 2.0 (for 2 users) $99.95

HyperCom 2.0 with HyperCard 2.0 $129.95

Additional license for HyperCom $50.00

Zone license for HyperCom $499.95

sendFile XCMD $35.00, sendSound XCMD $35.00

sendCard XCMD $35.00, sendClipboard $35.00

sendScreen XCMD $35.00, question XFCN $35.00

sendResource XCMD $35.00

Requires: a Macintosh computer with System 6.0.5 or newer, 1MB RAM and a hard disk.

SOFTWARE UPDATES

Be sure to check for upgrades to your applications. Many of these are already available on AppleLink, America On-Line and other services. Some of the new versions which have been available for some time now are: Now Utilities version 2.0.3, Suitcase II version 1.2.9, and QUED/M 2.09.

{ HyperCard SetTimeDate XCMD}
{ by Dave Kelly                    }
unit SetTimeDateUnit;
{ This project handles the SetTimeDate command }
interface
 uses
{include the HyperCard interfaces in the XFCN/CMD}
 HyperXCmd;
 procedure main (paramPtr: XCmdPtr);
{ the entry point for the XCMD/XFCN }
implementation
 procedure main;
 procedure Fail (errMsg: Str255);
{ return a given error message to HyperCard }
 begin
 paramPtr^.returnValue := PasToZero(paramPtr, errMsg);
 {Set return value of the paramBlock to given message. }
 exit(main); {exit the routine }
 end;
 procedure Setthetime (paramPtr: XCmdPtr);
 var
 str: str255;
 TheTimeDate: longint;
 Error: OSErr;
 begin
 if (paramPtr^.paramCount <> 1) then
 Fail(‘%bad parameters’);
 ZeroToPas(paramPtr, paramPtr^.params[1]^, str);
{ convert the location to a string }
 TheTimeDate := StrToNum(paramPtr, str);
 { and thence to a longint }
 Error := SetDateTime(TheTimeDate);
 { if the handle is empty, then return an error}
 if Error <> noErr then
 Fail(‘DateTime not changed!’);
 end;
 begin
 Setthetime(paramPtr);
{entry point; call the Setthetime routine}
 end;
end.

STACK SCRIPT:
-- This product is for licensed HyperCom™ users only
on openstack
  global userchecktime
  start using stack HyperCom
  tell who
  put the result into card field “HyperCom Users”
  put the seconds into userchecktime
  pass openstack
end openstack
on startstack
  global userchecktime
  start using stack HyperCom
  tell who
  put the result into card field “HyperCom Users”
  put the seconds into userchecktime
  pass startstack
end startstack
on idle
  global userchecktime
  put (the seconds - userchecktime) into elapsedtime
  if (elapsedtime>=15) then
    tell who
    put the result into card field “HyperCom Users”
    put the seconds into userchecktime
  end if
  put the long time into card field “Time”
  put the long date into card field “Date”
  pass idle
end idle

CARD BUTTON:
on mouseup
  tell whol,,”Set clock of which Mac:”
  if the first line of the result is empty then exit mouseup
  put the result into them
  put the seconds into standardtime
  tell them, “SetTimeDate”, standardtime
end mouseup

 

Community Search:
MacTech Search:

Software Updates via MacUpdate

Dropbox 193.4.5594 - Cloud backup and sy...
Dropbox is a file hosting service that provides cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. It is a modern workspace that allows you to get to all of your files, manage... Read more
Google Chrome 122.0.6261.57 - Modern and...
Google Chrome is a Web browser by Google, created to be a modern platform for Web pages and applications. It utilizes very fast loading of Web pages and has a V8 engine, which is a custom built... Read more
Skype 8.113.0.210 - Voice-over-internet...
Skype is a telecommunications app that provides HD video calls, instant messaging, calling to any phone number or landline, and Skype for Business for productive cooperation on the projects. This... Read more
Tor Browser 13.0.10 - Anonymize Web brow...
Using Tor Browser you can protect yourself against tracking, surveillance, and censorship. Tor was originally designed, implemented, and deployed as a third-generation onion-routing project of the U.... Read more
Deeper 3.0.4 - Enable hidden features in...
Deeper is a personalization utility for macOS which allows you to enable and disable the hidden functions of the Finder, Dock, QuickTime, Safari, iTunes, login window, Spotlight, and many of Apple's... Read more
OnyX 4.5.5 - Maintenance and optimizatio...
OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the... Read more
Hopper Disassembler 5.14.1 - Binary disa...
Hopper Disassembler is a binary disassembler, decompiler, and debugger for 32- and 64-bit executables. It will let you disassemble any binary you want, and provide you all the information about its... Read more

Latest Forum Discussions

See All

Zenless Zone Zero opens entries for its...
miHoYo, aka HoYoverse, has become such a big name in mobile gaming that it's hard to believe that arguably their flagship title, Genshin Impact, is only three and a half years old. Now, they continue the road to the next title in their world, with... | Read more »
Live, Playdate, Live! – The TouchArcade...
In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off by talking about all the games I splurged on during the recent Playdate Catalog one-year anniversary sale, including the new Lucas Pope jam Mars After Midnight. We haven’t played any... | Read more »
TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Vroomies’
So here’s a thing: Vroomies from developer Alex Taber aka Unordered Games is the Game of the Week! Except… Vroomies came out an entire month ago. It wasn’t on my radar until this week, which is why I included it in our weekly new games round-up, but... | Read more »
SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘MLB The Show 24’...
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for March 15th, 2024. We’re closing out the week with a bunch of new games, with Sony’s baseball franchise MLB The Show up to bat yet again. There are several other interesting games to... | Read more »
Steam Deck Weekly: WWE 2K24 and Summerho...
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. The busy season has begun with games we’ve been looking forward to playing including Dragon’s Dogma 2, Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, and also console exclusives like Rise of the... | Read more »
Steam Spring Sale 2024 – The 10 Best Ste...
The Steam Spring Sale 2024 began last night, and while it isn’t as big of a deal as say the Steam Winter Sale, you may as well take advantage of it to save money on some games you were planning to buy. I obviously recommend checking out your own... | Read more »
New ‘SaGa Emerald Beyond’ Gameplay Showc...
Last month, Square Enix posted a Let’s Play video featuring SaGa Localization Director Neil Broadley who showcased the worlds, companions, and more from the upcoming and highly-anticipated RPG SaGa Emerald Beyond. | Read more »
Choose Your Side in the Latest ‘Marvel S...
Last month, Marvel Snap (Free) held its very first “imbalance" event in honor of Valentine’s Day. For a limited time, certain well-known couples were given special boosts when conditions were right. It must have gone over well, because we’ve got a... | Read more »
Warframe welcomes the arrival of a new s...
As a Warframe player one of the best things about it launching on iOS, despite it being arguably the best way to play the game if you have a controller, is that I can now be paid to talk about it. To whit, we are gearing up to receive the first... | Read more »
Apple Arcade Weekly Round-Up: Updates an...
Following the new releases earlier in the month and April 2024’s games being revealed by Apple, this week has seen some notable game updates and events go live for Apple Arcade. What The Golf? has an April Fool’s Day celebration event going live “... | Read more »

Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

Apple Education is offering $100 discounts on...
If you’re a student, teacher, or staff member at any educational institution, you can use your .edu email address when ordering at Apple Education to take $100 off the price of a new M3 MacBook Air.... Read more
Apple Watch Ultra 2 with Blood Oxygen feature...
Best Buy is offering Apple Watch Ultra 2 models for $50 off MSRP on their online store this week. Sale prices available for online orders only, in-store prices may vary. Order online, and choose... Read more
New promo at Sams Club: Apple HomePods for $2...
Sams Club has Apple HomePods on sale for $259 through March 31, 2024. Their price is $40 off Apple’s MSRP, and both Space Gray and White colors are available. Sale price is for online orders only, in... Read more
Get Apple’s 2nd generation Apple Pencil for $...
Apple’s Pencil (2nd generation) works with the 12″ iPad Pro (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th generation), 11″ iPad Pro (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation), iPad Air (4th and 5th generation), and iPad mini (... Read more
10th generation Apple iPads on sale for $100...
Best Buy has Apple’s 10th-generation WiFi iPads back on sale for $100 off MSRP on their online store, starting at only $349. With the discount, Best Buy’s prices are the lowest currently available... Read more
iPad Airs on sale again starting at $449 on B...
Best Buy has 10.9″ M1 WiFi iPad Airs on record-low sale prices again for $150 off Apple’s MSRP, starting at $449. Sale prices for online orders only, in-store price may vary. Order online, and choose... Read more
Best Buy is blowing out clearance 13-inch M1...
Best Buy is blowing out clearance Apple 13″ M1 MacBook Airs this weekend for only $649.99, or $350 off Apple’s original MSRP. Sale prices for online orders only, in-store prices may vary. Order... Read more
Low price alert! You can now get a 13-inch M1...
Walmart has, for the first time, begun offering new Apple MacBooks for sale on their online store, albeit clearance previous-generation models. They now have the 13″ M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB... Read more
Best Apple MacBook deal this weekend: Get the...
Apple has 13″ M2 MacBook Airs available for only $849 today in their Certified Refurbished store. These are the cheapest M2-powered MacBooks for sale at Apple. Apple’s one-year warranty is included,... Read more
New 15-inch M3 MacBook Air (Midnight) on sale...
Amazon has the new 15″ M3 MacBook Air (8GB RAM/256GB SSD/Midnight) in stock and on sale today for $1249.99 including free shipping. Their price is $50 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price currently... Read more

Jobs Board

Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ *Appl...
Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ Apple ValleyTeacher Share by Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Twitter Read more
Senior Software Engineer - *Apple* Fundamen...
…center of Microsoft's efforts to empower our users to do more. The Apple Fundamentals team focused on defining and improving the end-to-end developer experience in Read more
Relationship Banker *Apple* Valley Main - W...
…Alcohol Policy to learn more. **Company:** WELLS FARGO BANK **Req Number:** R-350696 **Updated:** Mon Mar 11 00:00:00 UTC 2024 **Location:** APPLE VALLEY,California Read more
Medical Assistant - Surgical Oncology- *Apple...
Medical Assistant - Surgical Oncology- Apple Hill WellSpan Medical Group, York, PA | Nursing | Nursing Support | FTE: 1 | Regular | Tracking Code: 200555 Apply Now Read more
Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ *Appl...
Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ Apple ValleyTeacher Share by Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Twitter Read more
All contents are Copyright 1984-2011 by Xplain Corporation. All rights reserved. Theme designed by Icreon.