From The Publisher

By Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher

Several issues ago in the June, 1994 issue, we went through a quiet change here at MacTech. David Williams, the official Publisher since 1992, stepped aside from that title to better reflect our division of responsibilities. Since that time, I’ve been working under the title of Editor-in-Chief and Publisher - with most of my duties continuing to be Publisher related. This is due to our continued expansion of editorial staff at MacTech Magazine.

As Publisher, I will, from time to time, write here - in the Publisher’s column - so that I continue to communicate directly with you, our readers. As always, you are welcome to e-mail me. As Scott attests to in his column this month, I’m an e-mail fanatic. I’ve even heard that our staff throws “Fingers can now rest”parties whenever I go on vacation. So write us, let us know what you think and what you want. I do respond to just about every e-mail I get - personally.

Software Frameworks Closes
MacTech Helps SFAMembers

As many of you may have already heard by now, Software Frameworks Association (formerly known as MADA) has closed its doors and ceased doing business. To help soften the blow to the Macintosh developer community, we’ve announced that we’re helping SFAmembers during this transition period.

MacTech to FrameWorks subscribers

For all SFA members who have issues remaining in their FrameWorks magazine and/or disk subscription, we will be providing two issues of MacTech magazine and/or disk subscription for each outstanding issue of FrameWorks. Those SFA members who are already MacTech subscribers will receive an extension to their current subscription. The transformation will take place starting with the November issue of MacTech (possibly the October issue - the one you are reading right now). FrameWorks subscribers do not need to do anything, it will all happen automatically.

More OOP in MacTech

We’ll be adding or enhancing our coverage of OOP, in part so we can pick up where FrameWorks is leaving off. We’re working with Mary Elaine Califf (FrameWorks’ Editor) to run pending FrameWorks articles. Furthermore, we’re inviting FrameWorks authors to continue to write - just now for MacTech Magazine. You should expect to see the same FrameWorks type articles on a regular basis in MacTech. That’s in addition to the “regular” articles you are used to seeing in MacTech.

FrameWorks back issues still available

To make certain that FrameWorks articles and materials are still available to the community, MacTech has agreed to include some or all of these articles in a future release of the MacTech CD-ROM. FrameWorks back issues of disks, magazines and CDs are available through the MacTech Mail Order Store.

The MacTech Mail Order Store is also inviting the products formerly published and distributed by SFA to be a part of the Mail Order Store. For information or availability of any of these products, contact our Mail Order Dept.

New Exclusive Products

Starting immediately, the Mail Order Store is now the exclusive distributor of OOP-related products: AdLib, a replacement for Apple’s MacApp ViewEdit; Savvy, the only scripting addition to MacApp that allows for full AppleScript attachability and editability; and MAScript (which Apple will be incorporating into the next release of MacApp). These products are now available in the Mail Order Store (with full descriptions) at the back of this issue. Check them out!

We’re here to help!

We at MacTech Magazine have always had a lot of respect for SFA - they served the needs of an important niche for Macintosh programmers. We’ll be sorry to see SFAgo.

SFAprovided a forum for people to meet, discuss, and publish a continual stream of great ideas. Now that SFA is gone, MacTech would like to help the community keep these ideas flowing. What we want to know from you is: how can we help?

For example, do the SFAaffiliates need support? What directions does the community want frameworks to go? In other words, what’s on your mind?

New Folios!

Periodically, we get comments from readers about the formatting of the magazine. Many of you have noticed the new style we introduced with the August issue. In our quest to continually improve MacTech, we’ve made another change - this time to our folios (the thing with the page number and the name of the magazine at the bottom of the page). Starting this month, we’ve added the title of the article to the folio. This should make searching for an article easier.

As always, let us know what you think.