The management of SYNCWARE NEWS has asked me to take on the post of editor, as of the first issue of 1988. I am both honored and delighted at the prospect.
This preliminary announcement is intended to let you know what I am thinking at the moment, and to ask your help in charting the course for the magazine.
Why the change? Tom Woods has finally reached the point where he can no longer give SWN the time that it deserves. Heaven knows that he has already given enough of his time to make us all forever grateful. We respect his decision not to give us anything less than his best, and wish him well in his next activities.
So Jeff Moore, who has been our editor, is moving up to the publisher’s chair, and they’ve asked me to assume the editor’s green eyeshade and blue pencil.
Me? I’m Basil Wentworth, whom you may remember as author of the BASIL’s COMPENDIUM series, as well as occasional other articles. I spent 5 years as an electrical engineer, back in the days of vacuum tubes and slide rules, served a few years in the US Navy during World War II, and retired from a career in the US Foreign Service, after diplomatic and consular assignments in six foreign countries.
Along the way, I was lucky enough to marry Jocelyn, who has borne me two delightful children. My daughter has, in turn, presented me with two grandchildren.
After my family, my main loves are (in no fixed order) serious music, computers, and words. I would like to have posterity remember me as a tuba player and a writer of clean limericks.
WHITHER SWN?
I have no plans for revolutionary change in this magazine that we love. My main criterion for every decision will continue to be, as it has been for my predecessors, to try to satisfy as fully as possible the interests of you, the readers. I realize that I can’t succeed completely in this task. (As Abraham Lincoln never quite put it, you can’t fulfill all of the people all of the time.)
I want to do my best at it, though. But I’ll need your help.
I’ll need two kinds of help: first, we can’t give you what you want unless you let us know what you’d like. And second, we can’t publish material that doesn’t exist.
So PLEASE:
(1) Let us know what you want. Let us know what you don’t like about what we have been doing, what you want that we haven’t been publishing. (Sure, let us know what you DO like, too.) And let us know WHY you like or dislike it.
Jeff Moore tells me that the recent reference to PC computers stirred up a tremendous amount of interest.
GREAT!
I’ll address that subject in greater detail later on (probably for months to come), but for the moment let me say that IBM has unwittingly done us all a big favor by provoking you into writing. Keep the letters coming. Please.
While I’m talking about Brand X, let me assure you that I have no intention of abandoning, or even de-emphasizing, the TS computers as long as we have an audience and a supply of material.
Which brings me to:
(2) Make your bid for immortality by submitting your own manuscripts for publication.
What type? Well, so far, SWN has tried to keep a balance in its articles–a balance between the ZX81 and the 2068, with a smattering of other stuff; and a balance between hardware and software. This balance was maintained because the editorial staff thought you wanted it that way.
Maybe you don’t.
Maybe you want something completely different, as Monty Python used to say. (Or was it “entirely” different?)
How about “real world” applications, for instance? How about ways to trap your children or your spouse into becoming computer buffs?
How about articles on programming structures? On ways to get small computers to do the jobs that the giants do?
If you have a subject that you think would interest our readers, send it in. Or, if you prefer, drop us a line asking our opinion.
BRAND X
We Sinclair aficionados are in somewhat the same boat as are speakers of Spanish. The native Spanish speaker “knows” that his own language is the most beautiful, the most expressive, ever developed. Ditto for speakers of Italian, Arabic, Black English, Urdu, and all the others. And every one of them is right, too. For me, as for all the others, my own native language is the only one that really says what I mean, in spite of any specific technical superiorities of some other languages.
Spanish, for instance, when it comes to spelling.
Sinclairese is another example. I have yet to see a computer, large or small, that is as easy to program as these little machines. Not even the QL. But, just as English dominates the commercial world, whether the Spanish speaker likes it or not, so does the wilderness ignore Sir Clive‘s cries. If you’re rational, you’ll learn how to cope with the inferior language that IBM has sold to the world.
But I, like most of you, have a strong emotional attachment to the TS dialect, even apart from its actual superiority. After all, the PClones, if I may coin a word, were developed for users, rather than for programmers. And to me, programming is what it’s all about.
All of which is preamble to a reaffirmation of my pledge not to abandon you strong-hearted Sinclair mono-maniacs. I don’t even own a computer that is not of Sinclair lineage (except for that Hong Kong imitation that could best be described as Sinclair, bar sinister). So I expect to be using my TS computers as long as they run.
I even gave a TS2068 as a birthday present to my son, who is taking a Master’s degree in computer science at Indiana University.
BUT–here’s another thought:
There are lots of computer topics, including those listed above, that are vital, but not specific to any brand of computer. Why not explore some of them?
For instance, Tom Woods gave a beautiful talk at the Indianapolis show on the subject of making money with your computer. Maybe we can talk Tom into doing an article on the subject. Or maybe some of you would like to help stir the pot.
I give you fair warning: if no-one else submits any articles on the subject, I’m likely to try my own hand at it.
Which brings me to another hobby horse I’d like to ride for a moment.
USERS’ GROUPS
That great show in Indianapolis was largely the work of Frank Davis and Paul Holmgren, both of whom were represented in the July-August issue of SWN. Sure, they had a lot of help from many others, but I don’t think that any of those others will begrudge a little extra praise for Frank and Paul.
(And while I’m at it, my heartiest congratulations to Paul on winning that SWN prize that I had set my cap for. Paul’s program reminds me of the yachtsman’s advice: sail in such a way that not only you win, but also that your competitors are glad that you won.)
But back to business: Frank has been principal organizer of the Indiana Sinclair Timex Users’ Group (ISTUG). I have found this organization to be so enjoyable and informative that I heartily recommend membership in a Users’s Group to anyone. In fact I’m so sold on UG’s that I’m ready to make the following offers on behalf of SWN:
(1) To any UG that regularly publishes a newsletter of interest to TS enthusiasts, we’ll offer an exchange of subscriptions–you give us a free subscription to your newsletter, and we’ll give you a freebie to SWN.
(2) If you submit any of your newsletter articles that we find appropriate to reprint in SWN, we’ll pay our regular author rates for it. We’ll make payment to the Group, and then it’s up to you whether and how to split with the individual author. On the other hand, if an author asks us to reprint something that he has already published, we ask that he accompany his submission with a letter from the earlier publisher, giving us permission, and indicating whether or not they want an acknowledgement. In such case, we’ll pay the author directly. (This will apply to all publishers, of course, whether or not they are associated with users’ groups.)
(3) It goes without saying that we’ll continue to publish without charge information designed to help TS fans form new groups, to strengthen existing groups, and to help groups communicate with one another.
SO WRITE!
Generally, I prefer to have your comments by letter, for the reasons given below. If you can’t write legibly, do the best you can, and I’ll ask our local pharmacist to try to decipher it. He’s used to the scrawls of physicians, who are probably the worst writers, as a class, than anybody else. But after all, why not use the old word processor, and make your writing (if not the meaning) unavoidably clear?
The reasons I prefer writing, rather than telephoning, are:
(1) I’m usually unavailable at the times when you’ll want to call. Take my advice, and never retire to a university enviroment, if you value your free time.
(2) There are three signs of advancing age: the first is failing memory, and…somehow, I seem to forget the other two. I’m more likely to remember just what you want if you write it down (assuming that I can understand what you write).
(3) Unlike Rabbi Hillel, I don’t always think clearly while standing on one foot. I’m more like Wordsworth, in that some of my best thoughts are recollected in tranquility.
So I encourage you to write, in the first instance. If we need to get together by phone after I understand the problem, we’ll try it. But please write first, to:
Basil Wentworth
1413 Elliston Drive
Bloomington, Indiana 47401