Jun 93 Editorial
Volume Number: 9
Issue Number: 6
Column Tag: The Editor's Page
Everyone’s got a Sermon 
Now you can grab the pulpit!
By Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief
Each of us has our own sermon/ message. All you have to do is talk to any owner
of a Macintosh. As the editor of this magazine, I get quite a few people telling me that I
should do this or that I should do that. I like it, I expect it, it’s your obligation to the
Macintosh community - remember, we’re supposed to be religious fanatics (at least
that is what Apple says).
As David says in his column this month, we would like you all to continue writing
to us. For those of you who have a complaint about the magazine - you have no right to
complain unless you have told us your suggestion - then you can complain all you want.
(Maybe I shouldn’t say that). I do read every letter and I do respond personally to
many of them. So, you have no excuse.
Oknow what?
Now that we’ve produced a dozen MacTech Magazines (aka MacTutors) since we
took it over, we would like to focus even more on the editorial direction of the
magazine. By the time you read this, the new writer’s kit will be complete. If you
have ever preached about a Macintosh development topic, now is the time to share your
knowledge. Everyone’s ideas are welcome - commercial developers, professional
developers and in-house corporate developers are obviously encouraged. But, novice
programmers, scriptors, database programmers, hobbyists are welcome too. How
often do you get your own pulpit?
But Neil, what do I talk about?
A lot of people ask me for ideas on articles. They want to write, but just don’t
know what to write about. First and foremost - you should write about what you know.
If you are a first time TCL programmer, you shouldn’t be authoring an article on
designing a new class library - you probably don’t know enough. Yet, if you are the
author of some hot little action game, you probably know a thing or two about
animation.
My second suggestion is to browse some of the online services in both the
MacTech Magazine areas as well as the other developer areas; see what people are
asking about.
Third: Look at some of the hot development topics of the Macintosh universe.
Apple and others are continually coming out with new tools and technologies. Okyou
want some ideas, here I go (take a deep breath first, otherwise you’ll run out of air!).
Bedrock, AppleScript, Frontier, 4th Dimension, QuickTime, Newton, PowerPC,
PowerOpen, Taligent, C++, AOCE, Telecom, Comm ToolBox, QuickDraw GX, Voice
Recognition, WorldScript, Agents, Human Interface design, Text-to-Speech,
Cross-platform development, Hardware design and implementation, Client/Server
topics, DAL, System Extensions, Networking, AppleTalk, HyperCard, ScriptX,
Debugging, MacApp, TCL, Using Virtual User, prototyping, resources, memory issues,
macro development, compression, installer scripts, bug report collection techniques,
testing issues, SQA tools, imaging, visual programming, copy protection, animation,
drawing methods, and the list goes on. I’m not trying to provide you with an exhaustive
list - just a few ideas.
Fourth: We are looking for qualified product reviewers. Noyou won’t be
reviewing the latest copy of Crystal Quest, but you will be looking at some hot
development tools.
A good review can be extraordinarily helpful to the community. If a tool is good,
it can help a developer get their project done much faster. More software is good for
the community. Reviewers help people find the right tools and stay away from the
wrong ones.
An open invitation
Ok, enough said. Now let me ask outright. You have an open invitation to submit
articles. Ask us for a writer’s kit. Choose a topic. Research it. Send me an outline to
get some feedback. Write the article. Submit it and let us have a chance to review it.
And if you want the secret of how to communicate with me best it’s electronic mail.
As the magazine continues to grow, we’re going to want to make it bigger each
month. To do that, we’ll need more articles. Who knows, you might even win one of
our new contests! (See David’s article).
Product of the month
Just a quick aside. When was the last time you pulled a product out of it’s box and
had it work the first time - no hassles and completely transparent? Well, we had it
happen. Shiva Corporation was nice enough to send us a FastPath 5R router. This
device is a LocalTalk to EtherNet router. We plugged it in, it configured itself, and that
was it. I’m not sure why we bo thered reading the documentation! If you want more
information on their products, call Shiva at 617/252-6300.
I’m waiting for your articles
Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief
The Publisher's Column
A year of Issues, changes and feedback 
Now we want more!
By David Williams, Publisher
One year of issues ago, Neil made me buy this magazine. Then, Neil made me
write my column on the new Macintosh he made me buy. Since then, my Macintosh has
undergone a series of changes, each of which made it faster and better to use than it
was. During the same time, we’ve made a much larger number of changes in the
magazine. We’ve changed the format, the appearance, the editorial policy, and finally,
the name (to MacTech Magazine) - all to more closely reflect the needs of our
readership. Along the way, we have tried to respond to input from readers, and have
repeatedly asked for more. Fortunately, I have come to like the Macintosh much better
than my now obsolete PC, and our readership seems to like the new magazine, as we
continue to grow in subscribers and in advertising.
We wouldn’t have been able to make all this happen without support from a great
number of people. Specifically, I refer to our readers and our authors. The focus of
this publication is to provide a forum for programmers to tell other programmers
about new techniques and solutions to problems. MacTech is, in essence, a journal of
an ongoing dialogue between a vast array of active programmers. Our goal is to
continue to improve the usefulness of the magazine, and to do that, all that is required
is to expand the dialogue. The more readers we have, the more articles we can print;
more articles generate more comment, and the quality rises for everyone.
So, after one year, thanks to all of you who sent in your hard-earned money.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the search for subscribers is truly endless, so please tell all
your friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Believe me, we can use their money too,
because also endless is Neil’s search for the latest and greatest equipment (he just got
an 800 [a requirement for anyone using Quark XPress regularly - Ed.]), more
software, more nodes, more modems, more programming, more storage You get the
idea.
Now that we have a stable, growing readership, our next task is to expand
editorial content. Put bluntly, what that means is that we need more articles. We need
to get our readership interested in writing. So, to do this we have decided to have three
contests. Why three? Because we have three types of authors. Some authors produce
one or more articles each year, and so contribute to the dialogue on a regular basis.
Others write a single article, on a specific subject, and still others provide smaller
pieces such as for the Tips and Tidbits section. So, the three contests are:
Best Author
Best Article
Best Tip
Each contest will have its own prize and associated award, in addition to one
year’s free subscription and an All of MacTech Magazine CD. The winner of the Best
Author award will be given the title of 1993 Top Contributor, which will show on our
staff page, and will be given preferred status when allocating article space, for one
year, in addition to the actual prize. The other two winners will be honored in the
magazine, in addition to prizes.
So, as usual in my column, I’m asking something of you again. Write something.
And with your submission, we’d like to hear comments on what the prizes should be.
Now, don’t get carried away here, we can barely afford Neil’s equipment habit, so we
won’t be giving away his new 800, or a trip to Tahiti. This is, after all, a technical
journal. Our VP Finance, Andrea, says that the Best Author’s prize should be worth
about $1,000 and the Best Article should be worth $250 and the Best Tip, about
$100. We have found it painful to contradict Andrea, so those are the numbers.
The contest will be over the course of a year and the winners and runners-up
will be listed in the magazine.
Our new writer’s kit will be available by the time you read this, so e-mail,
write, or call for one, and then write an article!