First Look: TileStack beta programming tool

View this article at: http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/08/01/tilestack.beta/

Friday, Aug 01, 2008 1:10pm

First Look: TileStack beta programming tool

If you want to write a program for Mac OS X or the iPhone, you’ll have to use Apple’s Xcode tool. Since Xcode is designed for professional programmers to create complicated applications such as Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop, it’s not easy for novice programmers to learn or master. If you just want the fun of learning to program without the steep learning curve, you may be interested in TileStack, which is currently in beta testing.

To simplify programming, this tool models itself after HyperCard, a revolutionary programming tool that was used to create the original Myst game. Like HyperCard, TileStack offers a simpler programming paradigm along with an English-like programming language.

This programming paradigm uses the visual concepts of stacks and tiles. A tile is simply a window where you can place objects such as buttons, check boxes, or text. Since most programs rely on displaying multiple windows, a typical program consists of one or more tiles, which represents a stack.