🚀 go-pugleaf

Dear Friends Who Read My Note Requesting Your SGML Documents
In Order To Test MarkMinder,

Evidently the tone of my note regarding the delivery delay of
Exoterica's Compleat Test Suite has been interpreted in some quarters
as combative and as casting aspersions on the business integrity of
Exoterica.  It was not my intention to do any such thing, and I deeply
regret any misunderstanding in this matter.  (I had thought my tone
was clear when I said delaying the release for improvements had its
good points.)

We, too, are in the software business and we too have been forced to
slip past our own deadlines on occasion.  Moreover, the check we sent
Exoterica was only for $95, and (although I personally never received
it, possibly due to a communication failure within our own
organization) I am informed that the delay was explained and a refund
was offered to all those who ordered the Suite, I assume in a letter.
Having no knowledge of this letter, I called Exoterica the other day,
just before writing my note to comp.text.sgml, and I was told that the
Suite was delayed, because "We keep finding more things to put into
it," and because "Our time is being used on other projects right now."
I certainly understand that kind of situation: a public service
project like the test suite must, in any rationally operated
organization, take a lower priority than activities that put food on
the table.  We have had to make the same sort of painful decisions
with regard to the oft-delayed SGML SIGhyper Newsletter -- our own
public service project.

Let me add that, in general, I believe it is in the best interests of
all of us in the SGML technology business, both corporately and
individually, to work together to make the SGML pie grow, rather than
squabble over the (let's face it: still rather small) pie that already
exists.  The last thing I want to do is to have TechnoTeacher be
perceived as such a small-pie squabbler, or to set a bad example by
behaving that way.  (Sorry about the horrendously mixed metaphors --
I am aware that one does not "grow pies".)

Finally, after reading my note, Exoterica's John McFadden has
graciously demonstrated his own commitment to this same philosophy by
offering to send us a pre-release version of the Compleat Test Suite
on tape.  As he rightly points out, it will be interesting to see,
after we have exercised MarkMinder with these reputedly harsh test
materials, whether we will still be able to meet our own deadline for
the release of MarkMinder (end of March, 1993).

Steven R. Newcomb, President
TechnoTeacher, Inc.                          Voice: +1 904 422 3574
1810 High Road                               Fax:   +1 904 386 2562
Tallahassee, FL 32303-4408 USA               Internet: srn@techno.com