It is the end of 2023 and I failed to create any new blog posts this year. This is not because I wasn't busy working on things though, I just failed to report on them.
When Script-Central Special Edition v7n2 was published in 2022 I thought I was finished with Script-Central issues. I had completed most of what I had set out to do and was running short on ideas. So while I continued to work on a few things I planned to release them as isolated updates rather than combining them into another Script-Central issue.
I released updated versions of the HyperCard IIGS stacks Word Fu (a Wordle clone for English and French speakers), HyperTuneMaker (create tunes using a piano style keyboard), and Xmas Display '23 (songs and graphics displays for the Christmas season).
I created new IIGS Finder trash icons based on the Mac HiTech 3 theme.
I converted the MacOS 8/9 Platinum Theme Sound set to Apple IIGS rSnds that can be used with the Sound Control Panel or Sonics to liven up the IIGS Finder.
A new program I worked on was A2.Jukebox, an Applesoft BASIC program that uses a newly written machine language routine by Micah Cowan to play simple tunes written in Script Notation Language and display Apple II Hi-res graphics. The connection of this to my work in HyperCard IIGS is that the Xmas.Display.23 stack songbook can be exported to be used as input, which when paired with some holiday hi-res art created a nice Apple II Christmas slideshow that would work on any ProDOS capable Apple II. Both A2.Jukebox and Xmas.Jukebox were released on 3.5" and 5.25" disk images just prior to KansasFest.
By the fall though it was clear that I had more than enough content for another issue of Script-Central and so Script-Central Special Edition v8n1 was released in December as a 32 MB ProDOS disk image. Highlights of the issue, which had a heavy focus on fonts, include:
- An updated version of GSOS Splash Color, a stack that allows the splash screen of System 5.04, 6.0.1 and 6.0.4 to be set to different colors than the default periwinkle blue.
- Words games Word.Fu and GuessWords
- Updated versions of the Xmas.Display and HyperTuneMaker stacks with a number of new features.
- Useful font stacks Font Viewer 3.0 and ShowFont, and an improved version of the List.Fonts command
- Apple's TrueType Info stack converted from Mac HyperCard and enhanced.
- An American Sign Language stack converted from HyperStudio (IIGS)
- Instructions for converting HyperStudio (IIGS) stacks
HyperCard, including graphics and sound effects
- A new stack for documenting and demonstrating HCGS bugs - BugTracker
- Many TrueType fonts that Apple originally released only for the Mac are included in the issue's Extras folder.
Plans for a spring issue are underway and many of the stacks are already completed, including a word processor and a pair of HyperCard stacks for examining buttons and fields in a stack (both a Mac and a HCGS version).
The year ended with a bang as the 2018 MacMini I use for my IIGS development crashed along with its external backup partition. Even as I write this, recovery is underway.
Wishing everyone a wonderful 2024.
