Volume Number: 25
Issue Number: 05
Column Tag: Editorial

From the Editor, May 2009

June is certainly an exciting time in the Macintosh universe, as we're only a month (or less) away from WWDC. For those of you new to the Mac scene, or those that need a reminder, Apple's World Wide Developer Conference is the event that sets OS X-based development in motion. Since the iPhone is OS X-based as well, we'll get Apple supplied content about its intricacies also. For those that haven't attended before, but are planning to, make sure you avail yourself of the access you'll have to Apple personnel. If you are developing an OS X-based application, and are running into some show-stopping bug, or even need UI advice, there are few other times that you'll have access like this. Sometimes, it means skipping a session to avoid a huge queue that stops you from getting to another session— or from getting lunch! Also, make sure you get together with your peers; you know, those names you only know from mailing lists and such. Put a face to them. Enjoy a drink or a meal with someone who has given you good advice or outright saved your job by sharing a snippet of code or teaching you a new command that got your server back up and running.

But all of that is for next month. This month, we've got some great authors writing about great topics. First and foremost is our cover story: author William Smith returns with the authoritative reference on supporting Entourage in an Exchange environment. If you need to connect OS X users to Exchange using Entourage as a client, no matter the number of clients, this is a must read.

Another returning author is José Cruz, building on his packaging work. This is another in-depth article in creating Apple packages to deliver applications. No matter your discipline— Sys Admin or Developer— this is a valuable skill.

The Road to Code moves on to a new milestone: covering Windows, Panels and Sheets. This is like, real GUI work! Bring your product to the next level with a GUI for the end user.

For those of you with a product idea and wondering how to get started as an independent software vendor (ISV), Oliver Popisil and Michael Göbel are doing just that, and are here to share their experiences. Their Macintosh-focused examples should provide plenty of inspiration for anyone thinking of pursuing this road for releasing a product themselves.

If you're a System Administrator of any decent sized fleet of Macintosh machines, you know the pain of installing a new Apple firmware update across them all. Greg Neagle is here with some good news! Perhaps not exactly the news you're looking for, but certainly a way to ease the pain.

This month's Mac in the Shell column continues the focus on learning Python. This month, you'll learn more about classes and object oriented application creation. If you've been following along, this is one of the lynch pins of the Python experience, so, don't miss it!

The MacTech Spotlight this month features Jean-Daniel Dupas, Mac developer at Ninsight. I'll call him Mr. Humble, as he didn't make mention of one of his wonderful (and free!) applications that he offers through his personal site, Shadow Lab: http://www.shadowlab.org/Software/spark.php. Jean-Daniel offers some open source code and software via Google Code as well. He has a wide range of experience and wears many hats.

We hope to see everyone out in San Francisco for WWDC!

Edward Marczak,

Executive Editor