Editor's Note

  Well, here it is. RBM's last issue (and also it's first anniversary issue). Deciding to end RBM was a rather big descision for me, but I had been considering it for a long time. Very few people wrote for it, and more and more issues were being released late (as well as being written in the last possible second by me). My summer is turning out to be significantly more busy than I expected, so I finally decided to call it quits. I suppose it's my duty to get sentimental about this, but I really don't feel that way. Instead, I get to remember how RBM went from a tiny June '98 issue to this humongous July '99 finale.

  I got the idea for RBM on a really long car ride from New Jersey to Indiana. There really wasn't any way to get products reviewed, spread around tutorials, or give tips to a lot of RB users at the time. When I got back, I wrote the first RBM in a couple of hours, and released it. Looking back, it really wasn't all that much (and it had an absolutely horrible color scheme), but it set the basic style of the magazine (tips, reviews, news). It didn't have any tutorials, and the cover story was just about the fact that RB now had a plugin format.

  I was rather disappointed when the only letter that I received was a complaint from someone who had written a product that I reviewed. I went on with RBM anyway, and came out with the July issue, which was about RB hitting 1.0.

  After this, I stopped RBM to gather up writers. I wound up getting about 6, but none of them ever wrote anything for RBM and I continued to make the whole magazine. In the end, that was how most of the issues came out. Some featured reviews by other people, but that was mainly because reviewing your own product is rather questionable.

  The August issue laid out the example that the rest of the issues would all follow, with one large tutorial. I occasionally had more, but this was usually how it worked. Interestingly enough, RB Monthly began somewhat of a cooperation with REALgurus in the next issue. I changed my layout a bit (though it wasn't mainstream yet), and they put a link to my site on their banner. There was some more to the deal (such as them writing some articles for me), but like most things, that didn't ever work out.

  After this, RBM cruised along with a few large and small delays. The layout became a good bit crisper, and each issue usually had more content. However, I still wrote just about everything. The May issue came out on time, but the June issue (now July) has been quite late. Sorry about that, but I've been quite busy.

  Over the year that I've been writing RBM, REALbasic has grown from a small and free product into a full fledged commercial monstrosity. The need for tutorials and info on how to better use RB is probably even more important now than it was 13 months ago, so I hope that I can continue to write some. However, these won't be particularly common, so don't expect much.

  RBM has certainly been an interesting experience, and I hope that RB programmers will continue to benefit from it long after this magazine has finished.

- Dan Vanderkam