Most pathetic issue of MacTech ever
I got the May issue of MacTech a few days ago. It's been going downhill for a while now, but this is low.
First is a five-page article on the Nikon D100 camera. It's so off-topic that heading the article is a paragraph explaining how "it would be interesting to describe a non-developer topic in detail". Then again, Neil's the publisher, so if he wants an article in, it's in.
But it gets much worse.
On page 56, you have a 6 1/2 page article on... QuickDraw 3D.
Really. Set the Wayback Machine for 8 years ago.
I'm tempted to make this all quotes, but I can't, so I'll just quote the juiciest bits.
This article introduces you to the basics of 3D files in general and the 3D Metafile (3DMF), QuickDraw 3D's native 3D format, in particular. It shows how you can use AppleScript to easily convert a raw 3D text file into a 3DMF readable by the QuickDraw 3D Viewer or any other QuickDraw 3D compatible application.
Some relevant points:
- 3DMF is dead.
- QuickDraw 3D is dead.
- The QuickDraw 3D Viewer is dead.
- No applications are compatible with QuickDraw 3D any more.
- QuickDraw 3D is dead!
How useful to me is an article to convert text files to an obsolete format for a dead technology?
To be fair, Quesa is mentioned. But this only proves how old this article is:
Quesa is the astounding open source effort to build a 3D library which offers binary and source level compatibility with QuickDraw 3D. ... Quesa is not only suitable for Mac OS8/9 and MacOSX, it is completely cross-platform with support for Windows and Linux. A port for Be is expected. (emphasis added)
Quesa was working on Be back in 2000 at least.
One more quote and I'll stop beating this horse. This is the author bio.
While walking about on the Geneva Motor Show, Tom spotted a Japanese concept car in which a display clearly showed a Macintosh alert box with an error of Type 2. As he does not find the concept of having to install and configure Linux for car navigation, car audio and engine management particularly appealing, he can't wait for the release of OSX.
No comment.
If MacTech is digging that hard in their bag of articles that they hit this, they're surely doomed.
Comments
I was sorely tempted to blog the age of the QD3D article too, but decided against it.
It just happens I am sitting here writing this in the bus on my hiptop, with MacTech open underneath, currently reading John Welch's zeroconf article. I also find it humorous that it indicates "edited by..." since poorly or not-at-all edited articles are MacTech's par for the course.
The thing is, for every lame article like the D100 one, there are phenomenal ones like the ones by the Panic folks in the last two issues, the articles by Brent Simmons on contextual menu modules, and the QuickTime Toolkit series.
MacTech is the only computer magazine I subscribe to any more. I wish there were better choices: how I miss _develop_, but the atmosphere at Apple no longer cares for quality technical documentation either.
Posted by: nicholas riley | May 30, 2003 12:12 AM