HyperCard Launch

Apple released HyperCard 1.0 on August 11, 1987 at the Boston MacWorld Expo, bundled free with every Macintosh. Created by Bill Atkinson (original Mac team member, MacPaint + QuickDraw author), HyperCard was a stack-based hypermedia authoring system — what Atkinson called "an Erector Set for software."

Pi response (fast)

• 1987-10 — V09 N10 — ★★★ HyperCard SIG launches (Robert C. Platt) — 2 months after HyperCard's release
• 1987-11 — V09 N11 — ★★ HyperCard News column launches (Robert C. Platt)
• 1987-11 — V09 N11 — Boston MacExpo paired reports (Sicard + Milrod) recap HyperCard's launch event
• 1987-12 — V09 N12 — ★★★★ Bill Atkinson visits Pi for a special meeting — Yockey writes the recap, Platt does the Q&A
• 1987-12 — V09 N12 — Rick Chapman "A Simple Script for HyperCard" — working HyperTalk script
• 1988-01 — V10 N01 — HyperCard SIG + Anomalies (Rick Chapman) — established
• 1991-01 — V13 N01 — HyperCard 2.0 coverage

Significance

HyperCard defined an era at Pi. It was the closest thing to mainstream consumer-software-as-authoring before the web. Pi members built educational, organizational, and personal HyperCard stacks throughout 1987-1992. The HyperCard SIG was one of Pi's most influential SIGs through the late 1980s.

HyperCard's slow Apple-corporate decline (no major update after 1991, discontinued 2004) parallels Pi members' own gradual disengagement from it. The "1999-09 — V21 N05 HyperCard: What is it? (sunset begins)" piece marks the late mourning.

Connections

• Bill Atkinson — creator
• HyperCard SIG — Pi's institutional response
• HyperCard reference page
• Bill Atkinson at Pi — Dec 1987 special meeting
• Boston MacExpo 1987 — launch event