Dear Readers,
Nearly two years ago I was asked to join a team of Apple developer support people who
would meet monthly to discuss a forthcoming Macintosh model that would be based on
the new PowerPC (RISC) processor. Our goal was to ensure that developers receive the
support they need to get started on this new computer, due to be introduced in 1994.
It seemed a bit premature to me back then, but the time went faster than anyone would
have imagined. Now I'm happy to finally have something to show for it in develop: an
article to help you make the transition to this new stage in the life of the Macintosh.
We hope to tear the engineers away from their programming long enough to be able to
have a steady stream of articles on this subject in future issues.
The PowerPC processor-based Macintosh will be formally introduced roughly a decade
after the introduction of the first Macintosh computer, which of course makes me wax
nostalgic about what I was doing then at Apple: furiously finishing up Inside Macintosh
on an Apple III, handing off chapters to Louella Pizzuti (later the founder of develop)
to format them on the Macintosh in MacWrite ®. But most of all, I remember looking
forward to what I knew would be worldwide acceptance of -- no, excitement about! --
our new computer.
The world is different now, as am I (we've both changed a lot in ten years), and I'm
shorter on starry-eyed wonder and exclamation points than I was back then. But to
quote an old TV personality (trivia question: who?): "I think you're gonna like this
one." Talk about time flying by, this thing is fast. And it's still a Macintosh (which I'll
always have a warm spot for in my heart no matter where I roam). It's a horse of a
different color, but it's still a horse: a sleek, beautiful racehorse that should make us
all winners. At least that's what I'm betting.
Caroline Rose Editor
CAROLINE ROSE (AppleLink CROSE) got into technical writing because of a Math
degree she didn't know what to do with. It landed her a job at Tymshare, where she
wrote her first manual in pencil on paper, from which someone typed it on an IBM
Selectric typewriter. But enough ancient history. Caroline's career at Apple began
with Inside Macintosh and almost ended when she left to join NeXT, but she was smart
enough to come back after five years and become the editor of develop. After putting
each issue of develop to bed, Caroline likes to take off to someplace where she can
forget about computers altogether. After this issue, she'll fulfill a dream she's had
since the first time she looked at a globe as a child: she'll visit the Caroline islands.
She'll stay with friends who live on a sailboat in primitive style (except for
theircomputers!).*