 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Peter Smith |
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A Matter of Style
By now, as you read of this issue of PC Update, you may have noticed some changes in its format. The purpose is to make PC Update even more attractive to members and advertisers. Apart from the page layout the other major change is the disappearance of the "yellow pages", they may have gone - but their contents remain, distributed through the magazine. I will attempt to keep the order of the contents constant from issue to issue - once you are familiar with it, you should be able to rapidly find regular departments or features.
It is useful to have had the two month gap between issues to get the major part of these changes implemented, there will inevitably be some "fine-tuning" over the issues to come - if you have any suggestions for inclusions, or comments on this style, please let me know.
For those interested, the typeface now in use is 8.5 pt "ITC Bookman Light", This has been chosen for a variety of reasons: the lower case letters have about the same height as the previously used typeface (9 pt "Times"), but are wider; the upper case letters are slightly shorter, enabling the lines to be a little closer together; the net result is a little less text per page, but it should be much easier to read. (By comparison "The Age" uses 8 pt "Times".)
To those interested in Desktop Publishing, I recommend three books by Roger C. Parker - The Makeover Book; Looking Good in Print and Newsletters from the Desktop, all published by Ventana Press. Roger offers a wealth of practical experience, not only in what to do but also in what not to do! In Melbourne last December he was one of the presenters at the 1990 Electronic Publishing and Design Conference. I attended this two day seminar, half a day of which was devoted to his session on DTP design. The new layout is largely a result of that seminar.
More Matters of Style
One of the biggest problems in the computer industry, and for those who work in it, is attempting to be consistent with the myriad of abbreviations and the special jargon we use. In this country we generally use English spellings for words such as colour and aluminium (whereas American English uses color and aluminum), however the computer industry generally refers to a computer program, rather than programme. (Even the British Computer Society has adopted the American spelling, for a computer use only.)
Many of the standard abbreviations of the SI System - the metric system in official use in Australia - are often misused; for example a lower case "m" means "milli" (or one thousandth part), but an upper case "M" means "Mega" (or a million). We usually distinguish between bits ("b") and bytes ("B") in a similar manner. So when an author refers to a "4mb" system, he is unlikely to mean one that has of a bit! (In most cases the context will probably help determine the real meaning.) The preferred way of describing a 4 Megabyte memory is "4 MB". (Note the space between the measure and the unit!) The importance of distinguishing what is really meant becomes more apparent when terms like "bps" are encountered - does the writer mean bits per second or bytes per second?
The computer industry has made life even more complicated by interchangeably using "k" to mean both 1000 (its strict sense) and 1024 or 2 10. Likewise "M" can mean both 1,000,000 and 1024 x 1024 (1,048,576).
Errors frequently occur in abbreviations such as "Hz" - this is derived from the proper name "Hertz", which is why it is capitalised.
The reason for these last few paragraphs is to explain why some changes are made to authors' articles, before publication - we are not interested in producing a Scientific Journal (where absolute accuracy is mandatory) but we are also not interested in promoting ignorance! (If you read our purposes in December's PC Update, you will see that the case is quite the opposite!)
So, when you write for PC Update, please spend a moment or two to think more carefully about what you intend to say - you will be the ultimate beneficiary!
Advertising
We are delighted to welcome a new member to the PC Update team - Laurence Blake has volunteered to be our Advertising Manager. You may not know that the size of PC Update is directly related to the amount of paid advertising it contains (quite logical, when you consider it!), so please give Laurence any assistance, or leads you may have - more advertising will mean space for more articles!
Whilst on the subject of advertisers, I have happy tale to relate. I urgently needed a particular "Star" printer that I've been using for an application that produces small tear-off receipts. In December's PC Update there was a brochure from Computer Shark, listing many newer Star printers. I rang Kris Ostrowski to order what I was used to - "Sorry, that model is no longer made". Panic. To shorten a long story - in less than 48 hours she organised for me to visit the importer and evaluate whether any of the current range was suitable (one was!), then got it in stock and delivered - and at a good price! All this for someone unknown, who had not purchased there before. With service like that I've been back - Thanks, Kris!
Shareware
This month's PC Update sees the launch of a greatly expanded Shareware Registration offer - over 70 of the most popular and useful Shareware programs. I have compared our Group's prices with those in the US Shareware Magazine, it is hard to believe but they are lower than the converted US$ list price, lower still if you take into account freight and bank charges. This has to be one of the best deals you will ever get, so, support your Group, register your Shareware and help dispel the myth that all Australians are Pirates!
Reprinted from the Jan-Feb 1991 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
