I'm writing this after having just returned form the European Developer Forum in Kista, Sweden, where I was able to schmooze with developers from throughout Scandinavia and central Europe. I have concluded that European developers are, with a few minor exceptions (better taste in clothes, and the fact that everyone seems to *like* DocViewer) very similar to U.S. developers; the major difference being, of course, the importance of localization. While localization is a "should do" for U.S. developers, it is a "must do" for European developers, who must often ship multiple language versions even within a single country.
An important part of this process is timely access to localized system software and extensions, and I shall try to bring you more, and more quickly, in 1995. For a start, look for newly localized system software in the "What's New" folders of the Tool Chest and Reference Library editions of the CD, beginning next month. Also, we're trying a new delivery format this month; most system software will appear as disk images, and we have included a new image-mounting utility, DropDisk. Unlike other disk image utilities, DropDisk does not load the images into RAM, enabling you to mount (for instance) the entire 30-disk set of Traditional Chinese 7.1.2 disks at once to perform net-installs. This will also make it easier for the ~40% of developers who prefer disk images. See the file "About DropDisk" in the Utilities:DropDisk 1.0b4 folder for details.
Myths & Misconceptions about Europe
Myth: Sending your employees to conferences in Europe is wasteful, unnecessary junketing.
Fact: Such conferences are quite useful and informative, and will result in noticeably improved performance levels from your employees. Plus the beer is way better.
Myth: There's plenty of full frontal nudity on European television.
Fact: A quick bout of channel-surfing revealed very little full frontal nudity. However, old American sitcoms are much better when dubbed into a language you don't understand.
So, in addition to various localized versions of system software 7.1.2 and 7.5, here are this month's new and revised packages.
Developer Notes Update: The Display Device Driver Guide describes how Display Manager 1.0 comunicates with display devices. It provides the details necessary for programming display device drivers that fully support the Display Manager features on the Macintosh platform.
This updated version of the Display Device Driver Guide includes new sample functions for the Control and Status calls. The sample functions show how to use the low-level PBControlSync and PBStatusSync calls to set up a parameter block containing the appropriate control and status information about a video display device for the Display Manager. The new sample functions are in the Control Requests and Status Requests sections of the Guide.
Inside Macintosh Errata: This folder contains Technical Notes documenting errors or omissions in four of the New Inside Macintosh books: IM—Processes, IM—Memory, IM—Overview, and IM—PowerPC System Software.
Installer 4.0.3 SDK: Installer 4.0.3 provides the latest Apple technology for installing and upgrading software to both 68K and Power PC based Macintosh systems.
Version 4.0.3 is a bug fix release of the Apple multi-disk installer which also offers the new InstaCompOne decompression atom extender. The documentation has also been revised to go into greater detail towards addressing common questions and issues which were raised with Installer v4.0.
This particular update of the 4.0.3 SDK includes minor corrections to 2 of the example scripts and includes all available localized releases of Installer 4.0.3. Read the document "Installer 4.0.3 SDK Rev History" for a list of changes from the previous release of this SDK.
MacODBC SDK: The Macintosh Open Database Connectivity SDK allows application developers to connect to many databases through one common API. It also allows database developers to write database and translation drivers that work with ODBC-aware applications. Licensing for redistribution to end users is available only through purchase of the Mac™ OS SDK, sold separately.
Coming Next Month: A new version of ASLM, Snippets galore, yet another gnarly application framework, and much, much more.
