Webpresence was one of my first programming projects. It was created in HyperCard on ye olde Mac OS 8 at a time when I barely understood even the most basic concepts of programming.

While you could actually create a HyperCard program, or a “stack,” as it was called, with no custom programming whatsoever, HyperCard also included HyperTalk, a scripting language you could employ to extend the functionality of your program. Because it was so easy to use, and somewhat limited as to what you could deliver as a final product, HyperCard was unjustifiably pooh-poohed as a “toy” programming tool.

Webpresence is an HTML editor. Not just a programming neophyte at the time, I wasn’t that familiar with HTML, either. I’m not sure what business I had creating an HTML editor, let alone attempting to sell it as shareware, but I can report that a few generous souls actually paid their ten bucks! Going back over it after all these years, it doesn’t look extremely awful even with its monochromaic interface, and it actually works. (Although you can imagine the pain of editing a page of HTML in that tiny little window. One of HyperCard’s limitations was non-resizable windows.)

HyperCard got a lot of use in academic circles, but it never made it much beyond that. An interesting aside, however, is that the original MYST for Macintosh — one of the best-selling games of all time — was created primarily with HyperCard (with add-ins to extend color, etc.) and a fairly inexpensive 3D modeling and animation package called StrataVision 3d. “Consumer-level” stuff.

Not that Webpresence even remotely compares to MYST (duh!). Still, it shows that it’s not the tools that count, but the tooler (toolee?).

I do like the logo!