Dear Readers,

Wow!  Your response to the first issue of develop was overwhelming!  You sent almost two hundred letters and Links telling me what you liked, what you'd like changed, and what articles you'd like to see.  I've published (and answered) a representative sampling in the Letters section and will continue to let you know what happens with your suggestions.  Article-specific questions are answered (by the original authors) in the Macintosh Q & A section.

Meanwhile, I hope you're wondering how this issue's cover relates to the object programming theme.  

When you're dealing with objects, it doesn't matter if they're real-world or programming (or if you see a difference between the two); they still keep their identity.  You have the freedom to change how the object behaves and the luxury of knowing it will remain the same until you manipulate it.  Cleo didn't have to decide again and again how to make the pointed legs or the pivot on the compass, she just changed how they related to what she was trying to do.  Like an object in your program, the compass is reuseable and it has an obvious place and function within the whole.  

Unless you're already an object-based programmer, this issue probably won't solve any problems you're struggling with right now.  I'm hoping, however, that it helps to convince you that object programming can save you time and effort in the long run and that it's worth the investment it will take to learn about a new environment.  Not only will object programming help you to write and to maintain today's applications, but it will also help to prepare you for tomorrow's system software.

I hope that the cover helps you look at familiar objects in a new way and that the articles in this issue help you to see fresh solutions to familiar problems. 


        Louella Pizzuti
        Editor

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Louella Pizzuti is a career woman in shorts who freely admits that her favorite joke isn't funny.  Her favorite part of working at Apple is the texture and her favorite place to be is outside.

Inside or outside, her favorite color's yellow (the color of madness) and her favorite painter's Vince. She likes to play: in the mud (usually planting flowers); on the soccer field; in the weeds (it's easier than pulling them); but never, ever with words.

She's got her lemon tree (finally) and the convertible is next.  We're all wondering what will happen to the flowers in the bed of her truck.  