Aug 95 Publisher
Volume Number: 11
Issue Number: 8
Column Tag: Publisher’s Page
Publisher’s Page
By Neil Ticktin, Publisher
An update from MacTech
For some time now, we’ve been working on a number of projects at the magazine to
allow us to move to the next level. Finally now, after months of effort, we are starting
to see the fruits of those efforts, and we wanted to share them with you.
First, there were the mundane things like a corporate reorganization, moving to
new offices, and other infrastructure related activities - all of which are aimed at
further strengthening the magazine and the services that we provide to you. But, there
have been more interesting projects - like bringing MacTech to the web, new Internet
support, as well as a major revamping of our editorial process.
MacTech Net Support
Over the last several issues, you’ve heard us talking about how to put yourself on the
net, give yourself a web presence, and cool places to check out on the net - but, you’ve
not seen as much MacTech Magazine support as you might expect. Why? Well, partly,
we’ve been focusing on some of those aforementioned mundane issues. And partly, we
wanted to have the “right” type of net presence - including finding the right vendor to
partner with.
As of this writing, we’ve come to an agreement with an Internet provider to give
you access to our servers at rates up to 384k. We’ve finally locked in the mactech.com
domain name, and we’re bringing our servers up in the weeks to come. By the time
that you read this, we should have up and running:
http://www.mactech.com
ftp://ftp.mactech.com
So, grab your browser or ftp client and take a look - you should be in for a pleasant
surprise.
What’s going to be there? Well, the obvious stuff - the latest URLs relevant to
Macintosh developers, source code files, utilities, header files, Sprocket, information
sheets on the magazine, tools, books, utilities, etc But, we’re also going to
experiment with putting much of the magazine’s history (many of the articles from
the first 10 years) on the web - if it works well for all of us, we’ll make it a
permanent feature. This is similar to the MacTech CD - but even though we have some
solid bandwidth to the net, the CD will continue to be much faster. Take a look at the
site, and let us know what you think. Our web and ftp sites are meant to be living
breathing beasts that are there to serve the developer community. We’ll be making
regular changes to it. And, if you want something that you don’t see, let us know. If it
makes sense, we’ll do it!
And, for those of you who have suffered from Netcom’s horrible service
(MacTech’s provider for a long time now), you’ll be glad to know that we are dumping
their service as fast as we can. You’ll be able to get into our servers - and with solid
bandwidth. Of course, feel free to prove me wrong by accessing us regularly! :)
Our New Editorial Approach
For the past 11 years, MacTech Magazine has always taken an individual and sometimes
laid back approach to editorial. In more recent years, the editorial process was
focused around a single editor at the magazine. This editor would either review
articles randomly submitted by those in the developer community or go out into
developer community to get an individual article written. In some cases, there were
regular columnists who wrote articles on a monthly basis in a specific area.
Over the past several years, a couple of things have happened. First, the
Macintosh has a lot more technology in it - far more than any one editor can fully
grasp (and still have time to sleep ). Second, the magazine has grown to a point that
it’s time, once again, to revise our editorial approach. To that end, we’re creating an
Editorial Board for the magazine. This board will have a long list of “Contributing
Editors”. Each will focus on a niche in the Macintosh developer world.
The magazine is still brought to you by all of the individuals that have been
bringing it to you for a long while now. But today, we’ve got a broader and deeper
array of resources to help educate all of us about Macintosh development.
Who are these contributors? They are the movers and shakers in the industry.
They are the folks who know a lot about certain niches within the Macintosh
community. For starters, the new MacTech Editorial Board includes such experts as:
Name Topic
Steve Kiene, Mindvision Copland
Liam Breck Databases
Hazem Sayed, Digitool Dynamic Languages
Jon Wiederspan Internet
Richard Clark, General Magic MagicCap/Telescript
Eric Gundrum Misc. Topics
Steve Sisak Tips and Tidbits,
Technical Editor
and we are talking to others to cover the following areas:
Component Technologies (e.g., OpenDoc)
FrameWorks (e.g., PowerPlant, Sprocket, TCL, MacApp)
Multimedia Technologies (graphics, sound, etc)
Newton Programming
Performance Programming
Product Reviews
Scripting/HyperCard
Visual Programming
We’ve got several leads for these areas, and you’ll see these slots filled soon. And
remember, these are in addition to our regular columns
Getting Started by Dave Mark
Programmer’s Challenge by Bob Boonstra
Inside Info by Chris Espinosa
Dialog Box
Symantec Top 10
Uniform Resource Locators by Jim Straus
And, to coordinate these Contributing Editors, we’re creating a Managing Editor
position at the magazine. This new position is in addition to myself as Editor-in-Chief
and Scott T Boyd as Editor-at-Large. As of this writing, this new position has not been
filled - but look for announcements in issues to come. Interested parties should
contact me at publisher@xplain.com.
You should expect the Editorial Board for MacTech Magazine to change - with
additions and deletions happening as the industry changes and people’s lives change. If
you think there’s a topic that warrants a Contributing Editor we don’t already have, let
us know. If you think that we should make changes to the Editorial Board, let us know
that too.
As our Internet presence comes online, we’ll be adding a whole list of new
addresses to contact us at MacTech - both individual editorial departments, and
probably the entire Editorial Board. You’ll be able to write to directly to those
working on the magazine and let your thoughts be known. See page two of the magazine
in future issues for these addresses.
Our New Digs
For those of you who don’t already know, MacTech has grown so much in the last few
years, that we had to move to new offices. The contact info for our new Westlake
Village office is:
Mailing:
PO Box 5200
Westlake Village, CA 91359-5200
Shipping:
850-P Hampshire Road
Westlake Village, CA 91361
Voice: 805/494-9797
Fax: 805/494-9798
and of course, our e-mails remain the same.
Moving Forward
As you can see, we’ve had a few things going on in MacTechLand™ - all of which are for
the better. With our new corporate structure, our new offices, our new Editorial
Board and staff, our new Internet presence and more - we’re here for you, now more
than ever. As just one example, the issue that you are now reading has the largest page
count in the history of the magazine.
The question now becomes: what would you like to see next? We’re just an
e-mail away - so let us know. You can send mail directly to me at
publisher@xplain.com. In the mean time, enjoy the web site, and the magazine.
