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Recent additions (141-180):

v141

Having now finished adding shapes for a while, I have implemented an inspector. At the moment, this is only used to get what properties you might have applied to an object. I will modify this in future so that you can also set properties with it as well. You can invoke the inspector either by double-clicking an object with the edit tool / edit mode, or pressing ctrl i when you have an object selected with resize handles shown.

v142

Added additional field tools, modified the tool icons (now use SVG images instead of emojis).

v143

Updated the "Testing" page to show all the current syntax that webtalk can handle. I also added a "Test Pages" button on the tools palette, so it's easy to get to for quick reference (handy if you want to look up how to do something).

v144

Made the script editor window resizable, tweaked the format button in the script editor, and made the webtalk online demo work for mobile devices.

Well, works on Android at least.

On iOS, I can't hold down my finger on an object to invoke the popup menu (it currently tries to select the text of the button, so I have to run the command to edit the script via the message box).

v145

Fixed a few auto-correct issues for iOS and Android in the script editor. Made the "Run tests" button on the "Testing page" reset before each click, and added a new isuppercase() function. (see documentation).

v146

You can now create an image object using:

create image "imagename"

Or you can use the "Add Image" icon on the Tools palette.

You can currently set the image filename (the actual image used in the image object) using:

set the filename of image "imagename" to "filename.png"

If you proportionally scale the image, or even resize it so it's distorted, this does not affect the data of the image object in any way.

v147

Too many changes to list here. Please see the documentation. :)

v148

Major fix to the object model renaming, and continued work on the inspector.

v149

Most notable fix is the addition of the "video" button on the tools palette (now supports player objects).

Please see the documentation for more info.

v150

Quick overview of changes: Fixes to the script editor involving comments, you can now move a selected object around the card using the arrow keys in edit mode, the card now detects the arrowkeys, added support for custom functions, added 'clear message box' function, added more shapes to the tools palette.

v151

Expanded upon the key events. (keydown, keyup, rawkeydown, rawkeyup, and a new one - keyheld) Please read page 54 of the documentation.

v152

I've added support for the pendingmessages and webtalk now also supports the 'move' command. Please see the documentation for further details (page 56).

v153

I added the 'spin' command. (made sense since we have a move command). I also corrected a rename issue with the inspector (which I'll detail more about in the documentation).

v154

Today I expanded the play note range (note frequencies in documentation), and I also expanded on sending function handlers to other objects.

on mousedown
   send playSound("E",120) to this card in 400 milliseconds
 end mousedown"

This will send that command, along with it's variables, to the playSound function handler in the card, after 400 milliseconds. (non-blocking). In your card script, all you then need is:

on playSound thenote,theTempo
   put thenote into tNote
   put theTempo into tTempo
   play tNote tempo tTempo
 end playSound"

musical-note-btns.json

v155

Expanded upon the put, and lines function... It can now support a lot more 'fuzzyness' - I'll detail that in the release notes. I'm now making test stacks as that's the best way to find what webtalk is missing.

count-test.json

See the 'Example Stacks' on the left-navigation panel.

v156

I've added a HyperTalk-Extender module. The HyperTalk-Extender (hte), is a way to add new functions to the interpreter, so that they are available to any stack.

The idea is you'd add them to hypertalk-extender.js -- here's one I added to line 28 to test it:

// myCommand sample script
 HyperTalkExtender.registerScript('myCommand', [
     'get item 1 of the long date',
     'put it into tResult'
 ]);

Then, to run it, create a new button and use this script:

on mousedown
    get hte_myCommand -- prefix all HyperTalk-Extender commands with "hte_"
    put it
 end mousedown

The output from this is:

(This would vary depending on the day of the week).

This way, people can write their own scripts which can be called from any other stack, just by customising the hypertalk-extender.js

v157

Added variable line heights to fields, with the commands:

set the lineheight of field "a" to 32
 set the lineheight of line 1 of field "a" to 10

lineheight.json

As always, more information can be found in the documentation.

v158

Added the baseURL function:

put the baseURL

Outputs the current address the webtalk interpreter is loading from:

or

..for example. This might be handy for finding out if you are in an online instance of the interpreter or in a locally-downloaded copy.

v159

Webtalk now supports some font commands and functions:

put the fontNames
 start using font "myfont.ttf"
 put the lastLoadedFont -- returns the internal font name of the last loaded font
 set the textFont of field "test" to "myfont Regular"
 stop using font "myfont Regular"

fonts.json

v160

Added fixes for the ask dialog, the "if exists" function, fixes to the convert command to handle the short date better, and added the combine function as a synonym of the join function. Please see the documentation for further details.

object-exists.json

put-field-test.json

v161

A few fixes to the way the inspector sets some properties, using the "ask list" to choose fonts now, and a bit of code cleanup. Nothing too major. I also added the ability to exit a handler:

on mousedown
   clear message box
   put "a"
   put "b"
   exit mousedown
   put "c" -- should never get to this point
end mousedown

exit-handlername.json

v162

Added a couple more features to Webtalk today. You can now use:

put isOdd("9") -- returns true if the number is odd, false if even

I also added the ability to test for prime numbers:

put isPrime("5") -- returns true if the number is a prime number (hopefully!)

I will update the documentation to include these additions in due course. As always, please ensure you fully refresh your browser cache between testing various versions of webtalk (just in case you are seeing errors in the testing pages). Here's a great little firefox extension I use for this.

v163

I added switch case statements today. You can now use:

switch myChoice
   case "a"
   put "You chose option A."
   break
   case "b"
   put "You chose option B."
   break
end switch

switch-case.json

v164

Expanded the replace regex functions, added a matchText function (examples in the test pages), and added a formatNumber function.

put "<​p>Hello <​b>World<​/b><​/p>" into thtml
 put replaceRegex("<[^>]*>", "", thtml)

outputs:

replace-regex.json

Here's the matchText function being used to pinpoint a number in a string:

put matchtext("[0-9]+", "The price is £25.99", priceDigits)
 put priceDigits

returns:

matchtext.json

Here's an example of formatting a number in a one-liner for currency display:

put formatNumber(1234.567, 2, ",", ".", "£")

returns:

Also made sure that we support both the long and short forms of the date and time:

put the long date -- Monday, June 9, 2025
 put the short date -- 6/9/2025
 put the long time -- 6:57:47 PM
 put the short time -- 6:57

date-time-long-short.json

Also added the dateFormat function, as a quick way to reference certain parts of the dateitems. You can do this with any valid dateitems string:

put dateFormat("2025,6,9,18,24,30", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S - %A, %B %e, %Y")

or you can do this with the dateitems function:

put dateFormat(the dateitems, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S - %A, %B %e, %Y")

dateFormat.json

v165

Added the ability to set a backgroundPattern property:

set the backgroundPattern of image "new" to the imageData of image "image1"

backgroundPattern.json

v166

I was messing about with the answer colour (or color, whichever you prefer). I added the web hex colour to the dialog:

But then I thought, why not make this a function so that people can easily convert between RGB and Web hex values (or back again). So you can now do:

put convert colour 255,118,0 -- would output #FF7600
 put convert color 180,0,255 -- using US english spelling, would output #B400FF
 put convert colour #73D216 -- would output 115,210,22

answer-colour.json

v167

Something else that I thought might be handy to add. If you reference an object by name that does not exist, yet you have something similar already on the card, the interpreter can now prompt you so you are aware of any naming mismatch (case sensitive errors)

v168

Added support for the 'grab me' function. As in:

on mousedown
    grab me
 end mousedown

grab-and-intersect-test.json

v169

Since we already have move, rotate, and spin - it seemed a good idea to support flipping:

 flip image("theImageToFlip", "imageA", "imageB", 300, left, true)

I should explain the parameters this takes. Parameter 1 is the image you want to perform the effect on. Parameter 2 and 3 (imageA and imageB) are your images we use for the flip, parameter 4 is the speed, and parameter 5 is the direction of flip, and parameter 6 is true or false (depending on if you want to use a perspective effect). The non-perspective effect needs a bit more work though.

flip-cards.json

v170

Fixed a few issues with the move command (for some reason, I'd forgot to allow it to move image objects).

move-image.json

Cleaned up the inspector properties, which fixes the setting of the border property (both for standard objects, and for custom graphics with points)

background-graphic.json

In addition, graphics - even ones with custom points, can now have their backgroundPattern set.

on mousedown
    set the backgroundPattern of graphic "myGraphic" to the imageData of image "myImage"
 end mousedown

v171

Expanded the intersect function.

intersect-test-2.json

Now, when we use:

on mousedown
    put intersect(graphic "dragme",image "intersectTest") into tResult
    put tResult
  end mousedown

The intersect function can detect transparent areas of PNG images, and these are now counted as 'not-intersecting' (false). That doesn't sound like much, but was actually quite hard to do.

v172

Just backtracked slightly, and fixed a bug with the incorrect borderColor/borderColour getting inherited between different stacks being loaded. Also went back and fixed the flip image so it works properly with non-perspective variants.

flip-2.json

v173

Bug fixing involving multi-line text fields (which was more about stopping interference from various browsers). You won't notice any changes as they are all under the surface. Nothing to report other than setting textColor of lines will now work a lot more reliably:

on mousedown
    -- assuming you had a field test, with text in line 1
    set the textcolor of line 1 of field "test" to red
    wait 1 second
    set the textcolor of line 1 of field "test" to green
  end mousedown

v174

Added a new command called applyForce. This adds force to an object in a specific direction, with a specific amount:

on mousedown
   set the collisionRate to 10 -- how often in milliseconds we check for collisions globally
   set the applyForce of image "ship" to "5,180" -- 5 is speed, 180 is angle of travel
  end mousedown

This is so you don't have to go through coding custom repeat loops, or checking for intersects in x duration (although you could of course still choose to do that).

add-force.json

I should also mention, this is all non-blocking. Please see the documentation for more information on this function (page 66).

v175

Added a new object type, scrollbars. (think 'Progressbar')

set the startValue of scrollbar "myScrollbar" to 0 -- minimum value of progress bar
 set the endValue of scrollbar "myScrollbar" to 100 -- maximum value of progress bar
 set the thumbPosition of scrollbar "myScrollbar" to 50 -- the current progress shown
 set the scrolltype of scrollbar "myScrollbar" to "bar" -- shows as a horizontal bar
 set the scrolltype of scrollbar "myScrollbar" to "round" -- shows as a round bar

scrollbar.json

Please see the documentation for more information on this function (also page 66).

v176

Implemented the mouseDoubleUp/DoubleDown messages.

mouseDoubleEvent.json

Please see the documentation for more information.

v177

Added a pixelColor function:

get the pixelColor(200,340) -- returns 30,120,54 for example
 get the pixelColour(400,50) -- using UK english spelling
 put the pixelColour(myX,myY) -- using variables as x and y points

The pixelColour (or pixelColor if you prefer), returns the colour of a pixel at a specific x and y point. Even if another window or popup was to overlap that specific x,y point.

pixelColour.json

v178

Vastly improved the if else condition statement, so that it's a lot more robust, and 'fuzzy'. You can also now use parentheses for if else conditions:

condition-if-else-parentheses.json

v179

Added a new removeDuplicates function. Also continued work on making fields more reliable (or rather, preventing browser interference).

Modified the spin command with the addition of a "logical" keyword, a few interface tweaks, and improvements to the 'exit repeat' command.

Please see the documentation for more information.

v180

Continued work on field object formatting, added methods to reference a property array of an object, implemented the do command (execute a variable as a line of hypertalk script), added numToCodepoint and codepointToNum. Also, the openstack message is now supported in a card along with the opencard one which was already there. See the test pages for examples.

field-tests.json

Please see the documentation for more information.