Hypermaize
: A Hypercard program for recording and analyzing crosses
--Brian I. Osborne and Julie L. Mathern
We have used the Macintosh program Hypercard
to construct a "stack" to help the maize geneticist store and analyze data
amassed over generations of crosses. The appearance of the "cards" in this
specifically tailored stack, called "Hypermaize", resembles the crossing
card normally taken into the field. However, the accessibility of Hypercard's
programming language Hypertalk has enabled us to add useful features that
are activated by clicking on buttons. These features include: 1) The stack
will search for and display all instances a plant is used as a parent,
or solely as male or female parent. Clicking on the field containing the
results of a search takes you to the appropriate card; 2) The stack will
enact case-sensitive genotype searches and display the result of the search.
A subsequent option allows the searcher to eliminate "found" plants on
the basis of genotype (e.g., in order to find all plants that are Adh/adh
but not sh/sh); 3) The stack will print all cards, or a specified
subset; 4) Genotypes may be entered by clicking on words in a field, making
data entry fast and consistent; 5) Clicking on a button directs the stack
to draw a family tree of a plant that extends back as far as 6 generations.
Hypermaize functions on all Macintosh
computers tested, from the Mac Plus up. However, all the features of the
stack are enabled only on machines with 2 or more Mb.'s of RAM. The stack
uses the XCMD's SysEnvirons and Strings (STaK X), PopUpMenu (101 Scripts
and Buttons), PrintField and FindInField (Dartmouth XCMD's 3.1) and was
made with Hypercard version 1.2.2. The stack comes with a Hypercard tutorial
on its use. For a copy send a sturdy, self-addressed, stamped envelope
and formatted floppy disk to: Dr. Brian Osborne, Plant Gene Expression
Center, 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA 94710.
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