SK8 (programming language)

SK8

Paradigm	Object-oriented
Developer	Apple Computer
First appeared	Mid-1990s
Stable release	0.9 / 1997
Typing discipline	Strong, dynamic
OS	Mac OS
License	open source
Major implementations
Macintosh Common Lisp
Influenced
AppleScript

SK8 (pronounced "skate") was a multimedia authoring environment developed in Apple's Advanced Technology Group from 1988 until 1997. It was described as "HyperCard on steroids",^[1] combining a version of HyperCard's HyperTalk programming language with a modern object-oriented application platform. The project's goal was to allow creative designers to create complex, stand-alone applications. The main components of SK8 included the object system, the programming language, the graphics and components libraries, and the Project Builder, an integrated development environment.

For much of its history, SK8 remained a research project, and inspired a number of other Apple projects like AppleScript, as well as seeing use as a prototyping platform. Although around 1993 a team was assigned by the Apple Product Division to release a SK8 runtime, the limitation of the Mac's capabilities as well as the shift to the PowerPC chip made such a large project intractable. With the bulk of the original vision completed and no easy path to release as part of MacOS, active development ended in 1996–1997, and the Macintosh Common Lisp source code for the entire project was released to the public in 1997.