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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fourth World SuperCard Tools Go Open Source
Alliance with DevHQ Releases Free Tools and Source for Wetware Externals and More
LOS ANGELES, 19 July, 1999, Year of the Rabbit
Fourth World announced today a strategic alliance with DevHQ to deliver its popular line of SuperCard tools for free to the Open Source community. Both source code and compiled externals, most complete with sample projects, will be available for free download at a new section to be added to the DevHQ site.
"We've been focusing our commercial product efforts on the Macintosh developer community from the start," said Richard Gaskin, Ambassador of Fourth World. "Working with developers has been a great way to meet smart, motivated people doing a lot of interesting stuff. By delivering our work to the Open Source community, we have the opportunity to see the tools enhanced much more quickly than we could do alone, and we get to meet a great many more cool people along the way."
Mark Lucas, author of ListMaster, Widget, the popular Wetware Externals Collections, and a major contributor to the last few releases of SuperCard itself, is very excited about the move to Open Source. "This is the largest and most diverse collection of SuperCard-specific externals in existence, and starting today it includes the C source, and is completely FREE. It took me years of sleepless nights staring at Macsbug to figure out how to do all this stuff, and until now I've never been allowed to divulge these secrets to anyone. Between this and the enhanced SuperCard Internals Toolbox (also available with C source), SuperCard developers will have low-level access to the innards of their favorite 4GL far beyond what is available in any competing authoring tool on the Mac platform. IncWell's enlightened attitude toward sharing technical information with customers is something I believe is long overdue in this market, because serious development in a 4GL can be like playing a violin wearing mittens unless there is a way to reach around the tool and handle things directly when you need to. Now SuperCard lets you do that pretty much at will, and this code shows how.".
DevHQ is a comprehensive web site focusing on all aspects of Macintosh development, with an emphasis on rapid application development tools. "This is one of the greatest open source initiatives seen on the Mac in recent years," said Chilton Webb, founder and president of DevHQ. "Just releasing the externals as freeware gives SuperCard programmers considerable advantages over other development environments on the Macintosh. But giving external developers the source code will undoubtedly spur the authoring of even more (and more powerful) externals. DevHQ is proud to be a part of this."
Response to the announcement from the worldwide SuperCard community was extremely supportive:
"For a decade, Mark Lucas and Richard Gaskin have made available many of the most innovative and useful SuperCard tools to be found anywhere. To open that cornucopia of source code to all developers is a bold step that will surely result in a flowering of new and wonderful tools - and toys - for us all."
- Andy Baird, New Jersey, USA
"We use SuperCard to develop business applications and have used products from Mark Lucas for years. They provide reliable, easy to use ways of extending the possibilities for our clients. Opening the source code for such valuable products is a brave and visionary move by Mark. We think it's a great move because it helps SC become more accepted as a mainstream tool for business users. That opens the market for SC developers, and has big side benefits for all SC users. The more accepted SC becomes the more we all benefit."
- Paul Zahara, Managing Director Cedar Hill Pty. Ltd., Australia
"On it's own, SuperCard is a first-class development environment, but in combination with Wetware and other Fourth World externals, SuperCard becomes a powerhouse tool ready for the challenges of multimedia and data-crunching projects. Not sure if SuperCard supports this or that operation? Just turn to the scX or Wetware collection or another Fourth World tool and you are bound to find a solution."
- David Hutchison, Lakewood Software, Ontario, Canada
"The adventure of PhotoCat -the picture cataloger- wouldn't have been possible without the help of many of these great externals. We publish PhotoCat in both French and English, and now we'll be able to translate the XCMD error messages and customize features to be more consistent
with PhotoCat's interface."
- Thierry Maire, Switzerland
"Here at Yenco.com we use a variety of Fourth World and Wetware Inc. Xternals in our shareware applications. IncWell SuperCard is a terrific rapid application development tool and Fourth World and Wetware Inc. Xternals provide a natural extension to SuperCard's capabilities which allow us to deliver Mac shareware that's amazingly simple & simply amazing! Our products would not be possible without these tools. We are excited that Fourth World and Wetware Inc. are moving to an open source distribution model as it will empower more people to create powerful and reliable Xternals which continue to extend SuperCard's capabilities, which in turn will make a whole new generation of SuperCard created software products possible."
- Mike Yenco, Yenco.com, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA
"At MacUser magazine I use SuperCard all the time, for everything from managing and running labs tests to making interfaces for subscriber CDs. I use Wetware externals in virtually all of these projects. They help me make things which make people's jaws drop - and quite frankly I'd be lost without them. Releasing them as Open Source freeware is an astoundingly positive move. Now more people will get the chance to see how powerful SuperCard and the Wetware externals can be."
- Keith Martin, Technical Editor, MacUser magazine, England
The new headquarters for the Fourth World Open Source Alliance will be hosted by DevHQ at <http://www.devhq.com/4w/>. Migration of the SuperCard tools to this site begins today, and is expected to take a few weeks to complete.
Fourth World designs and develops multimedia applications for all major operating systems and the World Wide Web. Based in downtown Los Angeles, Fourth World offers more than ten years' experience in rapid application development, prototyping, usability testing, workflow automation, and web development. <http://www.fourthworld.com>.
Wetware Incorporated has been providing interface design and custom programming services since 1989. We specialize in the design, prototyping, and user acceptance testing of public-access systems such as ATMs, kiosks, web sites, and online services. We also develop custom Macintosh software, including applications, defprocs, XCMDs, and all things SuperCard. <http://www.fourthworld.net/wetware/> or <mailto:wetware@idt.net>DevHQ.com is dedicated to improving software development on the Macintosh platform. This is done by providing forums for discussion, libraries of code, tutorials on complex programming topics, interviews with key players in the software industry, open source software initiatives, and the Internet's largest indexed source code search engine. If you want to learn to program your Macintosh, DevHQ wants to teach you. <http://www.devhq.com/>
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© 1999 Fourth World. All rights reserved worldwide. Fourth World is a trademark of Fourth World. SuperCard is a registered trademark of Incwell DMG LLC. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.