Editor's Note

CAROLINE ROSE

This is a very forward-looking issue of develop . The cover article is on QuickDraw 3D, whose final release won't have shipped by the time you read this (though it should be soon). We've also got articles on Copland and OpenDoc, which aren't due for final release for a while yet. You'll learn how Copland will take the Mac OS into the future and how OpenDoc will affect the way users work with documents. There's an article on creating PCI device drivers that will be -- as far as we can tell as of this writing -- forward compatible with Copland. And we've got an article on the very subject of futures, a convenient way of implementing asynchronous interapplication communication, which will be especially valuable as more applications become scriptable and as component-oriented systems like OpenDoc become more prevalent. All in all, we're looking ahead .

Having articles on technology that hasn't shipped yet makes it tough for us to give you solid information and code that we know will withstand the test of time and not change in the future. QuickDraw 3D is shipping soon enough that we know that article and its code are reasonably solid -- but the software is "beta" as of this writing, so changes can still happen. The Copland and OpenDoc articles provide only background information that should prove helpful as you consider how to use those technologies in your work; these articles provide no code, but only a context for the respective technologies. And although the PCI article does its best to tell you what may or may not work with Copland, there are limits to how far it can see into the future.

While it's certainly atypical to have develop articles that aren't based on good, solid code, we felt these articles would nonetheless be of interest to you. We'd really like to know whether you agree with our decision. Our Review Board meetings are driven by what we think you want; we periodically need a reality check from you.

There's yet another way that we're giving you a glimpse into the future: this issue's CD contains a Preliminary Drafts folder containing articles that we expect to publishin a future issue ofdevelop . Again, we didn't want to keep you from getting informationthat you might find useful. This time we've got an article on implementing multipane dialogs and another on performing timing operations. Look in this folder from now on for "extra" articles.

So please, take a moment to give us your feedback on all of this (see the inside front cover to find out how to contact us). Why not stop by for a chat if you're at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference? Help us help you do a better job; that's why we're here.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Caroline Rose Editor

CAROLINE ROSE (AppleLink CROSE) has been writing and editing for so long that she can do it in her sleep. In fact, she sometimes lies awake at night trying to solve writing problems -- as she used to do for code bugs back when she was a programmer. To help get her mind off work, Caroline does Tai Chi and Ch'i Kung and curls up with her longtime feline companion, Cleo. But even then she can't get away from playing with words, as she continually adds to the long list of Cleo's nicknames; current favorites include Fuzz Bucket and The Purrmeister. Caroline agrees with Albert Schweitzer that there are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. *