Jul 92 Editorial
Volume Number: 8
Issue Number: 3
Column Tag: Editorial
Is the Apple Falling?
By Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief
Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity when a falling apple hit him on the head.
Recently, I’ve been hit by the gravity of Apple falling. Obviously, I will never be
knighted, because unlike Sir Isaac, when hit on the head, I wonder what Apple is
thinking.
Apple says that in the next 12 months it is going to bring us more new products
than ever before in its history: More 68040 machines, Newton (Apple’s venture into
the consumer electronics market), PowerPC (the RISC machine), and the whole
venture between IBM and Apple, including Taligent.
The question isn’t whether Apple is doing the right things technologically, they
have always done what is necessary to create a market. The question is whether they’re
moving with the proper order and timing?
Neil, what are you talking about?
I’m talking about the need for development tools. In the course of announcing all
of these revolutionary technologies, Apple has apparently forgotten its developers.
Michael Tchao was recently quoted as saying: “At Apple, all hardware projects are
thinly veiled software projects.” Well, without developers, that thin veil will shred,
and everyone will get to see pieces of naked hardware and firmware, i.e., the Apple will
fall. So now, we have to look at what tools Apple intends developers to use for all the
new toys.
What are the choices? Apple’s obviously committed to Macintosh (they’d have to
be - they’re not that crazy), so Macintosh will evolve and grow. One of the obvious
extensions to the Macintosh’s life is by segueing it into the PowerPC project. This
progression makes sense. Apple is talking about emulating 68000 code, and initially
only rewriting the most used areas in the native RISC code. So the Macintosh could be
the initial tool for PowerPC.
Then there’s Newton. Word has it that Newton will be programmed through some
type of scripting process. OK, the Macintosh can handle scripting, but how realistic is
it for us to develop software for a blindingly fast RISC chip on a relatively slow
68040?
I’ve heard comments like “don’t worry about it, Mac developers won’t be
developing for Newton”. Really? When developers realize the potential of a consumer
product linking with a current or faster desktop machine, they will develop for Newton
and Macintosh/PowerPC.
So here’s the problem - we’re going to be looking at Newton’s possibilities in
data accessibility and user interface while continuing our Macintosh development.
We’re going to develop links between Newton and Macintosh/PowerPC. We have to have
a development tool that will handle all of them, and more. If Apple hasn’t thought this
through, where should we turn NeXT?
Apple is thinking sometimes
At the World Wide Developers Conference, Apple said that they would not be
providing a Pascal compiler for PowerPC/Mac. As you’ll see in the NewsBits section,
Apple was smart enough to have a great company - Language Systems - do one instead.
On the other hand
OK, I’m obnoxious today. But what about the RISCy speed that Apple is producing
machines at? For years, Apple has produced machines at a “regular” pace.
Occasionally, something is pushed (ok, shoved) through the development cycle. Can you
say IIci or Quadra 950? So, the question is “who cares?” My response is, how many
of you have seen problems with IIcis and 950s right after they came out? Apple has to
move quickly, but with their prices still higher than Compaq’s new lows, things have to
work right. If you don’t believe me, see David’s column.
What does this mean?
It means they haven’t heard from you, and they need to. They do hear from us.
To represent your views, we need you to write to us. We’ll even publish some of your
letters. A lot of Apple employees read MacTutor - communicate with them.
RENEWING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION
With the restart of publication and the change of ownership and management at
the magazine, many of you haven’t renewed. We have a truly surprising number of
completely new subscribers, but we’d like to get all of you back in the fold. We’ve sent
magazines to people that have already expired. Now that you know that MacTutor is here
to stay and have seen the new issues, this is the last of these complimentary months. In
other words, the free ride’s over, so renewNOW! If you don’t, the subscription police
are going to come and get you. Penalties are severe. You’ll be locked in a cell with David
to discuss politics and fax software. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, turn to the order
card between pages 32 and 33 and fill it out. Then send it in. Or else
How Not to Do Technical Support
As you all know, there was a problem with the layout in the April/May issue of
MacTutor. As you may or may not know, this problem was caused by a bug that appeared
in Quark XPress 3.1. We have reported this and other problems to Quark and are still
waiting for a response. We just thought that you would like to know that magazines are
ignored by Quark just as much as end users. So to Quark goes our Tech Support-NOT!
award.
Oops! We (ok, I) goofed.
Every month, MacTutor has brought you the words of Jörg Langowski. Through
an oversight on my part (there is a pit in my stomach inserted here), we are missing
the wisdom of Jörg this month. Jörg’s column will be returning next month and will be
here regularly. In the words of Monty Python, those responsible have been sacked.
New GEnie Address
Those of you on GEnie can now send e-mail to MacTutor at “MACTUTOR”. You can
only send messages, no attached files yet. All MacTutor e-mail is checked daily thanks
to our QuickMail server. Now, if we could only get the server to reply it would only
take a few development dollarsDavid, oh David
Neil Ticktin
Editor-in-Chief
the Publisher's column
Inconvenience and other things
that don't work
By David R. Williams, Publisher
I was a reluctant convert to the Mac way of things. Neil made me do it. Neil
claimed the Mac was better because it was so much more convenient to use, that it “just
worked”. It’s true, inconvenient things often don’t work. But as I have learned in other
areas, I shouldn’t listen too closely to Neil. It can be very inconvenient.
Things don’t always work. Sometimes, things blow goats. I have proof. What
proof? I have an internal DoveFax Plus, that’s what. Every time I go about loading its
lethaly flawed software onto my unsuspecting system, the whole show goes into
inconvenient paroxisms of not working. Then, I have to bring the Quadra up without
the extensions, and inconveniently work in the very nice shade of blue that a Radius
Color Pivot shows without them while I very inconveniently remove everything from
Dove, plus my newly corrupted system which I then have to reinstall. We’ve sent
AppleLink’s to Dove, three of themno reply. I hear they’re busy reorganizing under
chapter 11. Maybe they’ll find our requests! I suppose that they’ll reply at their
convenience, which doesn’t suit mine.
Now, you’re probably thinking I’m having a “bad hair” day or that the struggles
of publishing have finally gotten to me. No. I’ve always hated things that don’t work.
Take for example our political system, as exemplified by the current presidential race.
Here, we’re given to choose between three things that don’t work. We can have Mr.
Clinton, who pretended he was loaded at parties in college even though he didn’t inhale
(was he faking it then or lying now?), along with his wife and her conveniently
handy-to-the-state-capital law firm, and his apparantly homicidal, but conveniently
uninvestigated mother, and his conveniently uninteresting string of former ladies of
convenience.
Or we can have Mr. Bush. Even my Quadra can’t decipher the coding in his lips
which we now know read “I’ll increase taxes after the election, when its more
convenient”. For who? Then, he found it convenient to leave Saddam alone after
inconveniencing several hundred thousand of our troops. Finally, he finds it more
convenient to keep Dan Quayle, who can’t even spell potato and thinks Murphy Brown is
a real person, rather than admit to everyone that he made a huge mistake to begin with.
Instead he’s conveniently busy being the Environment President, and the Education
President, and the No New Taxes President Unless he gets moving and implements some
new policies, he’ll be the EX President.
Last, but not least, we can have Mr. Perot, who so inconvenienced GM that it paid
him $700,000,000 just to go away. The buying of the presidency. That’ll be
$100,000,000 sir, and would you like it for here or to go? At least we don’t have to
wait for after the election to realize we have no idea what he really stands for. How
convenient.
And now, the analysts say the most likely outcome of a vote for Perot is that the
electoral college won’t have a majority and the decision will fall to the
democratically-controlled House, who will conveniently vote along party lines (the
representatives having no conscience that might require them to go with the most
popular choice) and conveniently give us Clinton, who we clearly like the least.
Conveniently, he’ll likely have no ethical qualms about accepting.
In the end, I’m stuck voting for Perot, if for no other reason than that it will
surely inconvenience a lot of entrenched politicians and I’m buying a new fax/modem,
because it’s more convenient than waiting for Dove.
On the other hand, some inconvenient things really do work well. Our thanks go
to Carolyn Rose, Editor of Develop magazine, for being willing to inconvenience herself
to provide some sound advice and a very gracious offer of mutual assistance, both of
which we are grateful to accept. I continue to urge readers to inconvenience themselves
enough to communicate with us. Reader input works. Indeed, if our wishes were heard
in Washington with anything like the attention and emphasis Neil puts on reader input,
we would likely have some acceptable candidates with well-considered and well-known
positions to choose from. Don’t let what happened to our government happen to
MacTutor. Vote in the elections, write to us now and RENEW, RENEW, RENEW!!
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