hypercard, n.
(ˈhaɪpəkɑːd)
[f. hyper- + card n.2]
1. A three-dimensional shape, used to perform certain card tricks, which may be formed by making three transverse cuts halfway into a playing card from alternate sides and then rotating one end of the card through 180°, creasing along a line joining the ends of the cuts so as to allow a central area of the card to stand at right angles to the plane of the remainder. rare.
| 1975 Pallbearers Rev. X. 1042/2 (heading) Hyper Card. 1978 Sci. Amer. Nov. 20/2 The form has come to be called a hypercard. Magicians have learned of it and have made it the basis for a number of magic tricks. |
2. Computing. Also Hypercard, HyperCard. A proprietary name for a programming system which uses symbols resembling index cards to represent the content and structure of an on-screen database, and permits the creation of hypertextual links.
| 1987 InfoWorld 22 June 78/4 A combination database and AI tool (the program is said to have been named Hypercard, having incorporated hypertext searching techniques). 1989 Byte Aug. 205/3 The classes of objects in HyperCard are assigned a definite hierarchy. 1990 Managem. Computing Nov. 44/2 Plus 2 is an extension to Apple's Hypercard, and can actually run many Hypercard stacks. 1993 N.Y. Times 13 Apr. c8/4 Voyager used Apple's Hypercard and its own multimedia development tools to link the text and the video segments. |