1/96 _______________________ OS/2 MAGAZINE DEVELOPER ARTICLES WRITER'S GUIDELINES _______________________ OS/2 Magazine is a monthly publication of Miller Freeman, Inc. It is aimed at both OS/2 users and application developers. Columns and articles previously found in the bi-monthly OS/2 Developer magazine are now contained in OS/2 Magazine. Technical articles about OS/2 programming features, functions, projects, tools, tips and techniques are solicited from OS/2 experts. This document summarizes our requirements for nominating and submitting articles. We're looking for articles that... - Simplify the OS/2 application development process - Explain OS/2 Warp features and functions that promote usability and improve performance - Provide how-to advice on graphical user interface, object oriented programming, client/server, and other programming techniques - Expedite conversion of DOS and Windows applications to OS/2 32-Bit platform - Create better applications using OS/2 development tools - Share tips & techniques, questions & answers, programming examples, and real life case studies Compensation OS/2 Magazine contributing authors are compensated upon publication. The amount paid is determined by the Editor-in-Chief. STEP 1: Nominating an Article Send a short outline of your article to the Editor-at-Large at 76711.1005@compuserve.com or fax (407) 495-4421. Describe the main theme and the topics to be covered. Explain why OS/2 application developers will find this article interesting or helpful. Describe your current job position and your OS/2 programming experience, credentials and affiliations. Estimate the number of drawings, screen shots, and lines of source code your article will contain. We will give you a tentative yes or no for inclusion in an upcoming issue. Upon receipt of final copy, we will confirm our intent to use your material. We reserve the right to use or reject an article at any time. STEP 2: Submitting Your Article Next, send us the article text (in softcopy). Content: 5 - 7 pages (2,000 - 3,000 words), single-spaced. Keep the article brief by summarizing the main points, using illustrations and short examples, and by referencing other sources. Remember: you may not be able to tell your readers everything they'll need to know about a programming technique or software tool in one article. Cover the highlights and refer readers to referenced publications for more detail. Excessively long articles will be returned for rewriting. Priority should be given to OS/2 Warp 32-bit functions, examples, tools and applications. Please, no PR pieces! Make sure your article reflects the latest release of OS/2. And remember -- you are writing for developers, not end users. Our readers want articles with hands-on, how-to programming examples, with actual working code. Appeal to their technical knowledge and curiosity. Software tools: OS/2 software development tools (compilers, debuggers, etc.) may be mentioned in your article, as long as they are secondary to the technical theme. Make sure that your coding examples (usually written in C/C++ or REXX) will work with all of the popular OS/2 language compilers or visual programming tools. File format: Keep the article text in a file by itself, separate from artwork (code examples may be put at the end). Use the ASCII "plain text" format, free of any formatting or control characters. Margins: flush left, no hyphenation, width 70. Name the file after the author contact's last name (SMITH.TXT, JONES.TXT, etc.). Send the file to the Editor-at-Large electronically or on a 3.5-inch diskette. Title: Keep title short and descriptive, e.g., "Using 32-Bit APIs to Improve Performance". Identifying information: At the top of your article, please include the following: Article title: Author(s): Author contact: Title & company: Job responsibilities: Phone: Fax: E-mail: Mailing address: Headings: Show level of each heading (use two heading levels and bulleted lists beyond that). Example: Improved Performance , Final Fine-Tuning . Artwork: All artwork is contained in "figures" that are called out in the text and appear on the same or adjacent pages. Include references and captions for all artwork in the text. Example: . Most figures are stored in art files (.TIF screen dumps) Name your art files so they are easy to match with your article, such as SMITH-F1.TIF. Diagram sketches can be faxed or mailed to us; we redraw all diagrams, so don't spend time creating your own.) Code listings: May be added at the end of the article or sent in a separate file. Well-commented, width 60. Be sure to test your code! Give each code segment a figure number and caption. Limit your code examples to the minimum number of instructions needed to make a point. If you like, you can also provide a separate file containing a full sample program ready for compilation. We'll put it in our CompuServe library for downloading by our readers. If you do this, refer to the CompuServe file (XXXXXX.ZIP) in your article. That file should be commented as follows: /* Program name: XXXXXX.ZIP Title: */ /* OS/2 Magazine, Issue: XXXXXX '95, page XXX */ /* Article title: */ /* Author: Phone: Fax: */ /* Description: */ /* */ /* Program requirements: */ /* */ When the OS/2 Magazine issue containing your article is shipped, fill in the header information and either upload the file yourself (to the OS/2 Magazine file library on CompuServe's OS2AVEN forum) or send it to us. Authors: Credit all authors, designating one person as our contact person. Include a short, one-paragraph biography (see previous issues for examples) of each author. Tell our readers what qualifies you to write this article. Include current job titles, responsibilities, your company address, and e-mail ID. Resources: Include a Resources listing at the end of the article. List all relevant product and published references: software tools used, book and article titles, publishers, city and date of publication, and page numbers if applicable. If a reference is to an IBM publication, include its IBM order number (eg., G362-0001-02). Selection: Articles (including text and all artwork files) must be submitted by the agreed-upon deadline. Late submissions are accepted on a first-come basis where last in is first bumped. We do overbook, so if your article is bumped from an issue, it goes in a queue of articles for future issues. Selection criteria include conformance to these guidelines, the theme of an issue, article length, and the number of available editorial pages. STEP 4: The Pre-Production Cycle The Managing Editor will contact you about grammatical editing and artwork. Your article will be faxed to you with changes for your review. Only typo corrections and emergency changes should be made. Either the prime author or a knowledgeable representative must be available to ensure a quick turnaround. Important: once you send us a softcopy of your article, don't continue to make changes to your file or you'll get out of sync with the in-edit version. Instead, give your changes to the Managing Editor by fax or telephone. Once the article is in production, there will be no rewrites. Post Production We encourage authors to communicate with readers and with each other by participating in the OS/2 Magazine CompuServe forum (GO OS2AVEN). OTHER INFORMATION Staff Publisher: Peter Westerman, (415) 905-2392 Internet: PWesterman@MFI.Com Mail: Miller Freeman, Inc., 600 Harrison St., San Francisco CA 94107 Editor-in-Chief Alan Zeichick, (415) 905-2499 CompuServe: 76703,756 Internet: zeichick@acm.org Mail: Miller Freeman, Inc., 600 Harrison St., San Francisco CA 94107 Editor-at-Large Dick Conklin, voice/fax (407) 495-4421 CompuServe: 76711,1005 Internet: os2mag@vnet.ibm.com IBM: BCRVM1(CONKLIND), IBMMAIL(USIB12H2) Mail: 3408 Sherwood Blvd., Delray Beach, FL 33445 Managing Editor: Theresa Mori, (415) 905-2431, Fax (415) 905-2234. Internet: TMori@MFI.COM Mail: Miller Freeman, Inc., 600 Harrison St., San Francisco CA 94107