ATS. Advertisement Transmission System. Version 0.9: HyperCard-based ATS for Macintosh

The HyperCard-based ATS for Macintosh is a part of the proof-of-concept implementation according to "IFRA Special Report 6.14.4", funded by IFRA, Washingtonplatz, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany. One of the key issues of the IFRA Specification of Advertisement Transmission Systems (ATS) was the platform independence. Therefore the prototype ATS was not based on the C-Modules described in the ATS package (see ATS package API). Beside other reasons the HyperCard-based implementation allows for a simple, but effective generation of a graphical user interface (which is of course necessary for a Macintosh) and for an easy access to the resources of the Macintosh operating system. A disadvantage of this approach is the mix-up of user interface and funcitonality. Therefore this paper is both: user manual and programming guide/reference manual. In the first part of the document the two HyperCard stacks are described from a users point of view: the ATS sending system (called: ATS-Sender) which allows for editing and sending of ATS jobs and the ATS receiving system (called: ATS-Receiver) which allows for receiving and viewing ATS jobs. In the second part some of the important scripts, the XCMDs and the XFCNs are described from a technical point of view. Integrating the ATS package modules and the XCMD/XFCN C sources and scripts would be powerful base for the development of an ATS product. Most of the funcitonality is realized through HyperTalk scripts which were embedded in the HyperCard stack and interpreted on run-time. However some time-critical functions are implemented in C and added as code resources (XCMDs and XFCNs) to the HyperCard stacks.