From: Brian S Hall (moseshll@umich.edu)
Subject: Open-source Collection Mgr clone

I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Stockpile
Manager, a free open-source replacement (in C) for the Apple's Collection
Manager.

The Stockpile Manager duplicates the entire Collection Manager API. All you
have to do is replace the word 'Collection' with 'Stockpile', so
GetNewCollection becomes GetNewStockpile. Note, however, that I have not
done any reverse-engineering. Internal formats are different, so you can't
pass a Collection to the Stockpile Manager, and vice versa. The flattened
data format *is* documented, so flattened objects are compatible between
the two.

The Stockpile Manager is built on top of VArrayLib, my free open-source
variable array engine. VArrayLib is also available from my web site (see
below) and is necessary to compile the Stockpile Manager.

Why did I write this thing? Because I don't like to see older machines,
with pre-8.5 systems or without QuickDraw GX, excluded from development
efforts. And because it's hard to debug something when you don't have the
source code (and I haven't bothered to politely ask Apple for their
Collection Manager sources).

VArrayLib source and documentation, as well as Stockpile Manager sources
(no documentation, because Apple already wrote that for me!), are available
at the following address:

http://MosesHall.tripod.com/

I hope you enjoy using both, and I look forward to your comments.

Also available is a public beta of Blugs, a new List Manager replacement.

Thank you for your attention.

Brian 'Moses' Hall
moseshll@umich.edu
http://MosesHall.tripod.com/