Dear Readers,
We've made a change to develop that I'd like to draw to your attention for two reasons:
(1) observant long-time readers may wonder why we're reverting to an old,
abandoned practice, and (2) we've learned a lesson that also applies to the products
you're developing.
Issues 1 through 4 of develop were "subtitled" January 1990 through October 1990.
Our fifth issue started out 1991 not only with the since-abandoned "Vol. 2"
designation, but also with the subtitle "Winter 1991." When I started this job in
February 1991, I learned that the change to seasons was made because of the
uncertainty of just when an issue would fall into developers' hands. But now we're
switching back to months with this, our May 1992 issue.
There's the problem that it's not real clear which year any given winter belongs to,
since that season spans two years. But the worst offense is that winter doesn't hit all
parts of the globe at the same time. So we were confusing and offending some of our
Australian developers, for example (see the first letter in the Letters section).
Localization is something that's of course critical to any products you hope to sell in
other countries--sometimes even other cities or states. And it applies to both code and
documentation. Way back when we were writing the first Macintosh user manual, we
were surprised to get feedback that we shouldn't refer to pizza in our sample text
because it was too regional. (Somehow the problem of having only white males in all
the photographs was overlooked, but that's another story.)
If you're thinking that people in other countries never use your software anyway,
consider this: In the song "Talkin' Wheelchair Blues" by folk singer Fred Small, a
woman in a wheelchair has extreme difficulty getting into a restaurant. She tells the
owner that there are things he can do to make it easier for folks in wheelchairs. The
owner replies, "Oh, it's not necessary. Handicapped never come here anyway." The
moral is that if you essentially shut some potential users out, of course they won't use
your software.
Apple can offer some new resources to you in your quest for localization. The Guide to
Software Localization will be replaced by a Guide to Macintosh Software Localization ,
to be published by Addison- Wesley and available by around late July. Besides the
subtle title change, the difference between these two is that the new book will cover
third-party script support as well as script systems directly supported by Apple. And
by the time you read this, there should be a new APDA product, calledLocalization for
Japan , that covers the business and technical aspects of getting software into the
Japanese market. You'll of course get all the latest technical details on worldwide
software in the forthcoming new, improved Inside Macintosh .
Another change starting with this issue is that there's no longer an Apple II Q & A
section. Instead, we'll pass on those Q & A's to the Apple II journal A2-Central
(published by Resource Central). We think this is a better way of getting the
information out to the majority of Apple II developers. All current Apple II
development products previously sold through APDA are now sold through Resource
Central. For more information, you can phone them at (913)469-6502.Now on to
Issue 9's trivia question. Here it is again: The original hardcover Inside Macintosh
Volumes I-III had a running pattern of Macintosh computers across its endpapers . . .
what broke this pattern, and why? The first two correct replies came from Tom
Bernard of Bersearch Information Services and Bill Lipa of CODAR Ocean Sensors. The
answer is that the screen of the last Macintosh in the back of the book contains my
favorite character in the Cairo font, a rose, and it represents yours truly, the editor
and principal author of that tome. The tricky part of the answer is that the rose was a
surprise to me. My boss arranged for it to be put there; I didn't know about it until he
handed me my first hardcover copy, hot off the press, and slyly asked me to lift up the
inside end flap.
This time I've got a puzzle for you font fiddlers out there--a test of just how good your
font- observing eye is: What character in develop 's body font is upside-down (not
just one-time-only, but defined that way)? Clue: There are lots of them in this issue,
but none in this editorial. Get out those magnifying glasses!
Caroline Rose Editor
CAROLINE ROSE (AppleLink: CROSE) has been writing computer documentation for
more than half her life. She harks back to the days when using "you" in a manual was
controversial. Caroline hasn't stood still: she switched from writing and programming
(at Tymshare, R.I.P.) to writing and editing ( Inside Macintosh , at Apple) to managing
and editing (at NeXT) to editing develop (couldn't stay away). Besides her job at
Apple, Caroline loves almost all kinds of music, dancing, and reading. Her eclectic
tastes are typified by the three books she's involved in at the moment: a history of
MAD magazine, an annotated Hamlet , and an Italian language textbook. A New York City
transplant, Caroline thinks that nothing compares to the New York Times Book Review
or real New York pizza. She's occasionally nostalgic for knishes. *