EDITOR'S NOTE

CAROLINE ROSE

Dear Readers,

The more observant among you may have noticed that we've made yet another change to develop  with respect to how it's dated. The last change happened with Issue 10, when we stopped designating issues with the current season and went back to using the current month, because the season isn't the same around the world. Now we've moved the date ahead by one month -- also to accommodate worldwide distribution.

For the terminally curious, here are the details: Apple Direct , our vanguard of information for business and technical decison makers, doesn't reach other countries until two to eight weeks after it's distributed in the U.S.; it might, for example, be folded into a local mailing whose schedule doesn't coincide. So by the time some non-U.S. developers see Apple Direct , they think they've been sent a past issue rather than the latest one. To help convey to them that it is indeed the latest issue, it's now dated with a month that's closer to when they'll see it. The Developer CD Series  disc, Apple Direct , and develop  all need to be in sync -- so there you have it. What is now the December issue of develop  was the Autumn issue last year and the October issue in 1990 (when our production cycle was a month out of phase from where it is now). Anyway, we hope those of you in the U.S. agree there's no harm in a little time travel forward.

A little time travel forward would be really handy for me while I'm writing these editorials, because I don't always know what the state of the develop -related world will be two months in advance (that's the lag time before you actually read this). In Issue 11's editorial, for example, I couldn't alert you to develop 's being in a new format on the Developer CD Series  disc, because at that time we weren't sure it would make it onto that disc. Yes, we've responded to your complaints about develop  in HyperCard® by switching to that popular viewing tool that you may know as "BlueNote" -- now "Apple DocViewer" -- the same tool that's used for viewing New Inside Macintosh .

The Developer CD corresponding to Issue 11 contained a prerelease version of DocViewer that still needed some work; for example, it wouldn't work at all on a Macintosh Plus. In lieu of a time machine, I've consulted the Magic 8-Ball DTS uses to answer developer questions, and it tells me that the CD corresponding to this issue of develop  -- called the "November/December" CD, to ease the transition -- will include a version 1.0 release of DocViewer along with Issues 11 and 12 in DocViewer format. Version 1.0 should work on Macintosh Plus and newer models, with system software version 6.0 and later. Back issues of develop  will eventually also make their way over into this format (the 8-Ball is hazy regarding just when this will happen). We'd really like your feedback on DocViewer and how well it works for reading develop  (or anything else). Please check it out, and send your flames or even praise to AppleLink DEV.CD.

Whoops -- did I say "DTS"? Old habits die hard. Another change we're gradually making in develop  is to shift from "Developer Technical Support" (DTS) to "Developer Support Center" (DSC). As you may have read in the April 1992 issue of Apple Direct , the DSC is a gateway to DTS as well as other support-related resources. It provides a focal point for developer queries -- a single AppleLink address, DEVSUPPORT, and a single phone number, (408)974-4897. Developers who aren't Apple Associates or Partners can contact the DSC for limited nontechnical support and referrals. We'll be adjusting to this change along with others that are creeping in: Tech Note references no longe rnumbered; Inside Macintosh  references that include New Inside Macintosh ; DocViewer as the on-line viewing tool; postdating; and other changes that I foresee but don't dare reveal lest I upset the delicate balance of the universe.

Finally, I feel compelled to explain my bizarre trivia answer in Issue 11, about the upside-down character that wasn't. I claimed the offending character was "8," which on the contrary looks perfectly OK -- not at all topheavy -- in printed develop . It turns out that this "8" is topheavy only in LaserWriter output. That will teach me to use a media-specific question! I think I'll quit while I'm behind and lay off trivia questions altogether for a while (even though I'll miss those friendly letters from you).

Caroline Rose Editor

CAROLINE ROSE (AppleLink CROSE) has been writing software documentation since before there were personal computers or even lava lamps. Her total of five years at Apple is (to use the jargon she helped coin in Inside Macintosh  Volume I) a discontinuous selection, interrupted by as many years at NeXT. When not reading, writing, coining, or otherwise obsessing over words, Caroline enjoys the outdoors. (As songwriter Greg Brown puts it, "People say small things when they stay too long in little rooms.") The highlight of her summer was "swimming Lava Falls": being thrown from a raft that capsized in the largest rapid (a 37-foot drop) on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and being rescued by a small paddleboat that braved the next rapid with 12 worried souls aboard. Talk about an adrenaline rush! And she lived to tell the tale.*

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