This issue of FrameWorks is unprecedented-a record number of excellent technical articles, the beginning of the FrameWorks Disk subscription, and a completely new format.
Bill Anderson, the authors and I have worked hard to make this an issue that will really get your attention. Let us know what you think-send a note to one of the addresses listed under FrameWorks Editor on page 6.
The lead technical article of this issue is Approaching MacApp 3.0 by Chris Knepper. It's a complete overview of MacApp 3.0 changes and new features, written for an audience currently familiar with MacApp 2.0.
To start your FrameWorks Disk subscription, turn to the order form that's bound in the center of this issue. Once your FrameWorks Disk subscription is started, you'll receive the FrameWorks Disk at the same time you receive your copy of FrameWorks.
Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to pre-announce availability of the FrameWorks Disk subscription. It's probably frustrating to have this issue in your hands without the disk; we apologize. Your orders will be processed as quickly as possible, and once your subscription starts, subsequent disks and issues will be properly synchronized.
For every FrameWorks issue, Anderson does all that's required to transform the edited final article copy into the journal that you're holding now. This includes laying the articles out in PageMaker; creating sidebars, advertisements, and placing illustrations and photos; selling advertising space; creating the cover of each issue; and working with printers to produce the final product. MADA Services Assistant Chuck Sohnly handles subscriptions and works with national and international postal services to get FrameWorks to your door.
What with Anderson's redesign, my learning curve as the new editor, and the increased volume of articles in this issue of FrameWorks, we've worked though a number of weekends during the last two months.
While you're at the WWDC, stop by MADA's concourse display. New members can join, and all MADA products will be on sale. The concourse display will be staffed by Bill Anderson, Arvid Jedlicka, and myself. Stop by and say hello-the concourse display will be open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Jedlicka has orchestrated a vast and amazing compendium of MacApp material for this CD-ROM. The order form bound in the center of this issue can be used to order a copy.
Chavez also said that Apple is considering whether to provide a Pascal version of MacApp 3.0, based on feedback from the MADA conference and a survey of developers that Apple is conducting. The survey attempts to determine the impact on developers of changing the MacApp source language to C++.
MacApp Online is being dropped because every MADA member can now interactively access MacApp.Tech$-if not through AppleLink, through America Online. And all past MacApp.Tech$ messages are now available, decompressed and indexed for searching, on the CD-ROM of the 1991 MADA Conference. Because of this improved access to current and past MacApp.Tech$ messages, it's an appropriate time to redirect the human resources and FrameWorks pages previously required to process and reprint MacApp.Tech$.
MacApp Online really did take an unreasonable amount of work. Although I semi-automated the formatting process by writing some utilities that read raw links and wrote styled Microsoft Word RTF files, it still took several people several days of work to sort, cull, edit and format the messages for publication. By the time MacApp Online reached print much of it was out-of-date, because of the timely but ephemeral nature of many MacApp.Tech$ messages.
The elimination of MacApp Online does present an excellent opportunity for a FrameWorksĘauthor to create an article that is derived from an interesting series of recent MacApp.Tech$ messages on a particular topic. Or, as Tony Meadow and others have suggested, someone could collect "new user" questions and answers from MacApp.Tech$, then edit them to create a MacApp Q&A FrameWorks column directed at the beginning MacApp programmer. Contact me if you're interested.
FrameWorks now pays authors for published material. The current rate is eight cents per word; a FrameWorks page runs about 500-525 words, so that should work out to an average of a little over forty dollars per page.
The final copy deadline for the June issue is May 15.
