September 1988 — Vol 10 No 9 (cover sic "No 10")

Overview

Robert C. Platt President. Cover printed "number 10" but issue runs as Vol 10 No 9 — original sic noted in Issues Index. Six cover hooks: IIGS Stuff: FAD - A Finder/AppleWorks Disk, Graphicwriter 2.0, The Aardvark File: Deciphering MouseWrite Dictionary, GameSIG News, Macinations: Mac Underground Review, On HyperCard: Improving Performance. HyperCard era visible: three pieces — HyperExternals I: A Review (Robert C. Platt, 67), HyperCard SIG News (Robert C. Platt, 68), On HyperCard: Improving Performance (Kenneth Knight, 69). GraphicWriter v2.0 (Jurij Solovij, 21) — IIGS DTP. The Aardvark File (Richard Fitzhugh, 24) — MouseWrite dictionary reverse-engineering. FAD: A Finder/AppleWorks Disk (Ted Meyer, 12). AppleWorks Speedups: July 23 Meeting (Joe Wagovich, 14). Labels, Labels, Labels (Ray Settle, 19) — AppleWorks mail-merge. Souping up AppleWorks & Time-Out (Ray Settle, 20). GAP for Apple Desktop Publishing (Ray Settle, 27) — Settle's three-piece run. Annapolis Apple Slice News (Katherine M. Cave, 48). PI-SIG News (Robert Golden, 48). AVSIG (Art & Video SIG) (Nancy Seferian, 48). WAP Acrostic (Dana J. Schwartz, 39) — debut of the recurring WAP Acrostic puzzle that Schwartz produces through the early 1990s. International Codes (Joseph A. Hasson, 40). MacNovice: MacSpeak (Ralph J. Begleiter, 52) — Begleiter's first MacSpeak piece. Macinations: Mac Underground Review (Robb Wolov, 54). Softviews (David Morganstein, 56). Mac Bits and Bytes (Lynn R. Trusal, 58) — Trusal's recurring Mac column. PowerPoint Has MS Made a Coup? (Adrien Youell, 60) — first significant Pi PowerPoint review. Findings (Larry Feldman, 64) — Larry Feldman's column. Excel SIG Report (Larry Feldman, 77). Mathematica Report: An Extract (Lawrence Wolfarth, 76) — first Pi notice of Mathematica (Wolfram launched Mathematica 1.0 in June 1988). Views and Reviews (Raymond Hobbs, 76). Mac Disketeria News (David Weikert & Martin Milrod, 85). Q & A (Robert C. Platt, 11). Best of the Apple Items from the TCS (Paul Schlosser, 28). Best of the Mac Items from the TCS (Bill Baldridge, 78). On the Trail of the Apple /// (David Ottalini, 32). GameSIG News (Steven Payne, 34) + 4 game reviews (Infocomics, Border Patrol, Defender of the Crown GS, Dr. Dumont's Wild P.A.R.T.I., Winter/World Games IIGS, Epyx Sub Battle).

Highlights

HyperCard in full swing — Robert C. Platt & Kenneth Knight

Three articles this issue. Platt covers third-party HyperExternals (XCMDs/XFCNs that extend HyperCard). Knight's Improving Performance (continuing his On HyperCard series) is mechanic-level optimization. HyperCard SIG is a sustained Pi forum from 1987 through ~1993.

First Pi notice of Mathematica — Lawrence Wolfarth

Wolfram Research shipped Mathematica 1.0 in June 1988; Pi catches it 3 months later. Pi's Mathematica coverage stays small (no SIG) but recurs through the early 1990s in Hobbs/Pelham reviews.

WAP Acrostic debut — Dana J. Schwartz

First in a long-running Pi puzzle franchise; the answers run a month later, and Schwartz keeps producing them through Vol 13/14.

PowerPoint — Adrien Youell

First sustained Pi PowerPoint review (Microsoft acquired Forethought in 1987; PowerPoint 1.0 was Mac-only). Marks Microsoft's serious push into Mac apps before Office is a product.

Mac Disketeria — David Weikert + Martin Milrod

Weikert + Milrod co-byline the Disketeria column — a pairing that recurs frequently. Both are major Pi infrastructure volunteers.

Entities

People: Robert C. Platt, Ted Meyer, Joe Wagovich, Ray Settle, Jurij Solovij, Richard Fitzhugh, Paul Schlosser, David Ottalini, Steven Payne, Dana J. Schwartz, Joseph A. Hasson, Katherine M. Cave, Robert Golden, Nancy Seferian, Ralph J. Begleiter, Robb Wolov, David Morganstein, Lynn R. Trusal, Adrien Youell, Larry Feldman, Kenneth Knight, Lawrence Wolfarth, Raymond Hobbs, David Weikert, Martin Milrod, Bill Baldridge Topics: HyperCard, HyperCard Externals, WAP Acrostic, Mathematica, PowerPoint, Apple IIGS Desktop Publishing References: GraphicWriter 2.0, MouseWrite, Mathematica, PowerPoint, FullWrite Professional

Connections to other issues

• HyperCard arc continues from earlier 1988 issues into 1989-1991
• WAP Acrostic begins here and runs through Vol 13/14
• Mac Disketeria column survives Martin Milrod's death in 1993-09 — V15 N09; Weikert continues alone
• "No 10" cover typo is corrected by 1988-10 — V10 N10 (real Oct issue)