A Word from your wonderful Editor

A lot has happened with RB monthly in the past month. For example, we've added new people to our staff, such as Chris Daley, our new artist. An addition I'm particularly proud of is the new patterns, such as the background one here. They're all by me, and I think they're great! Also, I've added several new sections to the magazine. There's now a "Current Releases" section that keeps you informed of new releases of products that have been reviewed in old issues. There's also a "How To" section that shows you how to do neat things in RB. Also, I've added some "Every Month" features to the magazine, which are in the news section (they have a red background instead of black). For example, there's a list of all the RB updates in the past month.   Well, enough about the magazine, lets talk about RealBasic!!! This has been a big month for RB, and one that's been a long time in coming. When RealBasic was CrossBasic (it changed to RB at r28), it was shareware. Since it changed, it's been public beta. It's been in this beta state for over a year now, and by golly, it was time for a change. Version 1.0, whcih was release June <date>, is probably about the biggest event there's been for this here programming language since it changed from CB to RB (that was more than a name change). Now that it's no longer in public beta, RealBasic has incredible potential. Here's how I see it:   So far, RB has been mentioned in MacWeek. Now that it's been released though, it could hit a lot of mac magazines, from

MacWorld to MacAddict. With it's increased publicity, RB will gain popularity quickly. There are two reasons for this. One is that it's easy to use. We've had Basic on the mac for a while with FutureBasic, but it was too complicated. Command lines are NOT in style! RealBasic however, is very easy to learn, but it has quite a bit of power. Also, it is graphical, like Visual Basic. RB could appeal to people who are interested in writing software for macs, and C programmers looking for easier alternatives.   RB also has potential for businesses. For many companies, Visual Basic allows them to make specialized software for their clients. However, since there is no such thing as VB for Macs (then again, with this Microsoft alliance, who knows?), they can't make software quickly and easily for macs. This makes them disregard the mac users as an insignificant percent of the computer market. However, if RB can import Visual Basic projects quickly and easily, then this situation would change drastically. Now, they could write software for many, many Mac users with almost no extra effort. All they'd need is a copy of RB Pro, which will be a bargain for $299. If there's more software available for macs, then more and more people will see the mac as a legitimate platform, and start using it.   So, in conclusion, RealBasic has incredible potential to help companies, and the Mac.   - Dan Vanderkam    writer, editor, publisher, etc.