Chiton Stacks

Stacks_Image

Chiton Stacks software package is a series of integrated HyperCard stacks for managing
taxonomic and distributional data for chitons. HyperCard* is a Macintosh Application dating
to 1987. It allows the development of other stand-alone "stacks" such as the collection
of stacks comprising Chiton Stacks (see above). I have more recently used it to develop another
software package called DNA Stacks. Over time, Apple's support for HyperCard has sadly
declined, but the program is still extremely powerful and flexible, with many stacks still
available online. HyperCard continues to have many strong devotees. Still, most HyperCard
stacks seem dated and slow, and even strong advocates have been forced to look elsewhere.
Among HyperCard's descendents are new commercial "xTalk" development tools such as
Revolution. I am currently exploring these, as well as Web development tools, to eventually
convert Chiton Stacks into a cross-platform package. The stacks above comprise the current
software package described on these pages. The stacks are for Macintosh, and depend
on also having HyperCard or HyperCard Player installed*. Even though the graphics
are dated, the stacks are very functional in their current utility. It is my plan to continue
to explore ways to use Chiton Stacks to output interesting reports to the Web or as
stand-alone modules for the Mac and possibly other platforms. Despite its name, I also
think Chiton Stacks could be adapted successfully for similar use with other marine
taxa. As someone who has spent most of my effort refining the database information
in Chiton Stacks, my programming effort has been focused on expediting the ease of
such entry, whenever a new publication on chitons shows up in my mailbox, and new
data must be incorporated. The goal of Chiton Stacks is to permit such constant nonlinear
updating while minimizing the effort needed to periodically bring worldwide tallies and reports
up to date.

Return to Chiton Card Page

Return to Worldwide Chitons Home Page

*HyperCard (HC) will only run on quite old Macintoshes that can run in Classic Mode - If you have one, you also need to find the HyperCard app or HyperCard Player 2.4.1. Good luck!