Volume Number: 24 (2008)
Issue Number: 03
Column Tag: Editorial

From the Editor

At MacTech, we're busting at the seams with happiness because this issue is busting at the seams with content! We're fortunate to keep adding readers, and in the process we add contributors - people that want to share their knowledge about the Mac or some facet of the Mac. Of course, we're always looking for fresh voices and unique angles on this technology. If you're doing something cool with the Mac, let us know! Perhaps you - or someone you know - wants to write about it, or maybe you belong in the MacTech Spotlight. In either case, let us know! Send me an e-mail at exec-editor@mactech.com and let us know! First-time authors are always welcome.

Anytime that MacTech pits Mac against Mac for benchmarks, we end up with hugely popular articles. This month, we've run thousands of tests on G4 and Intel Macs running Tiger, Leopard, Office 2004 and the brand-new Office 2008. We'll show you where each is faster, slower and where you should care about that performance. Editor in Chief Neil Ticktin brings you the skinny on Microsoft Office 2008 Benchmarks.

We're closing in on the end of Doug Hanley's Road to Certification series. This time, Doug talks about getting certified in Pro Apps. Unless Apple changes something drastically, this is part 4 of this 5-part series on everything you could want to know about Apple certification tests.

José Cruz follows up last month's introduction to git with Sharing With Git - showing you how to use git for distributed projects and how to tie it all back in to Xcode. Git is gaining steam in the versioning system space, and we got the goods!

Dave Dribin continues down The Road to Code and delves into yet another critical piece to programming and understanding OS X - the foundation framework. Follow Dave's lead and learn how to write your own apps.

Returning author Aaron Montgomery brings us more goodies for developers and anyone who wants to understand unit testing. If you have a growing Xcode project, and you want to automate the testing of the code as it changes (and oh, remember to use a version system...something like git!), you should be reading, "What's in Your Target?"

Why Macworld is great: the power of bringing people together. Norman Palardy and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Geoff Perlman to talk about REAL Software and the latest release of REALbasic.

To round out this diverse and voluminous issue, our monthly features bring you PHP as a general scripting language, foundations of creating system images, and the MacTech Spotlight shines on Austin Meyer, best known for X-Plane. X-Plane is renowned for its realistic flight physics and the ability to fly vehicles from a two-seat prop plane to the Space Shuttle. Best part? All development is done on a Macintosh!

Don't forget: if you have a topic you'd like to share, let us know. If you're not up to covering a topic yourself, but know one that you want to learn about, let us know about that, too!

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next month.

Ed Marczak,
Executive Editor