From: stevej@ais.org (Steve Jovanovic)
Subject: TopSoft Seeking Authors (UMPG-like Effort)
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Summary: New TopSoft Effort
Keywords: TopSoft
Organization: UMCC
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 04:34:48 GMT

Dear Netters,

I'm posting on behalf of several people in our group (TopSoft) who are 
interested in putting together, maintaining, and expanding a UMPG-like 
"document" (book?)

Many of you already know about TopSoft as "the FilterTop guys."  (It's 
true what they say, that actual dev time = projected dev time multiplied 
by a large positive integer! :) ).  TopSoft's mission is to bring 
world-wide groups of people together to work on free, collaborative 
projects; our goal is to get people together, make new friends, and have 
lots of fun.  In the process, we hope that we can create a lot of code 
that's useful to the Mac Dev Community, and we hope that the projects 
(applications) that we develop will benefit all Mac users.  Also, we hope 
to encourage Mac users at large to get into Mac programming.

One of the things that TopSoft would like to develop isn't software at 
all, but a useful reference that all Mac programmers can use to help them 
resolve problems and get their questions answered.  Currently, there are 
several very important resources that Mac developers have, including:  c.s.m.p. 
digests, the Usenet Mac Programmer's Guide (UMPG), and the Think Prog. 
Guide (a HyperCard stack created by Ralph Gonzales which takes people 
through C, THINK C's subset of C++, and OO design).  We had the idea that 
maybe we could somehow borrow from all these sources, and get all kinds 
of people with various specialties together, to create a comprehensive, 
and ever-expanding "document" on C programming, C++ programming, and Mac 
programming in general.  Moreover, our goal is to actually generate and 
include "plug and chug" code that everyone can use...we would like this 
to be a really practical guide that people can cut/paste code from.  
Because TopSoft has concentrated virtually all of its efforts into 
FilterTop dev, we have only developed one separate library, the TSMenus 
Library, that we have released.  However, we hope to be able, with your 
help, to generate all kinds of useful libraries, and include them as "an 
appendix" to this "document."  

One reason we would like to do this is so that we can provide a FREE 
source of information and code to all Mac developers, without any 
licensing restrictions.  "If it's useful to you, use it!"  Another reason 
is that it's one of TopSoft's goals to help people program the Mac, and 
we think that this is a really good way to come closer to reaching that 
goal.  TopSoft hopes to be able to offer something to programmers of all 
levels alike.

I'm posting this message to see if there is interest in supporting this 
effort...  This effort is really broad-ranging, and we need a LOT of help 
to be able to make it a reality!

In addition to the functions and libraries that we want to distribute 
mentioned above, we need people to collaboratively author sections such 
as the following:

 Programming in C
 Programming in C++
 "Gotcha's" in THINK and MPW
 Programming the Mac--where do I start?

Those would be some of the major sections...subsections would include 
many of the types of things we see in the c.s.m.p. digests, the UMPG, 
etc.  

Our effort would be an ongoing one, with more and more added, and 
incrementally released, as more people become involved.  I've used the 
term "document" because we're not really sure how our package would best 
be distributed...as a pool of text files?  As a huge HyperCard stack?  As 
something else?

Anyway, this message is just a preliminary post to see how much interest 
there is--if there is enough interest, then we'll post to c.s.m.p. again 
and hopefully get the effort underway.

BTW This is a bit of an aside, but the FilterTop team meets weakly for 
interactive chatting on a system in Australia.  There have been several 
posts to c.s.m.p. from individuals in Europe who find our meeting times 
inconvenient.  For these individuals, if you like, please get back to us 
(ts-request@syrinx.kgs.ukans.edu), and hopefully we could set up another 
meeting site/time for European users.  Thanks!

On behalf of everyone at TopSoft, Best Wishes for the New Year!

steve

+----------------------+---------------------------+----------------------+
| Steve Jovanovic      |  President, TopSoft, Inc. |    2918 Goold St.    |
| Marquette University +---------------------------+   Racine, WI 53404   |
| Computer Engineering | Internet:  stevej@ais.org |    (414) 632-0336    |
+----------------------+---------------------------+----------------------+
| "Blue skies above, sun on your arms, strength in your stride, and hope  |
|  in those squeaky clean eyes..." -- "Teenage Wildlife," David Bowie     |
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