Brian, thank you for all your hard work getting the ball rolling and for your kind words about me. I totally agree with you about Prentice Hall's professionalism and that they "get it".
I want to introduce myself briefly to the group. I am an independent Windows (and DOS before that) database applications developer with nearly 20 years experience. I've developed applications in Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java, Access, PowerBuilder, and OpenInsight, among others, using back ends such as SQL Server and Oracle. My customers have included a wide variety of businesses, from small 5 person shops to departments of Fortune 500 companies. I have also developed Web-based applications using Active Server Pages. In the process, I have had to dig deep into the advanced features of many of these programs, such as the Win32 API.
I also am an experienced technical writer and computer book author. I wrote the online help for OpenInsight, which included examples from the Windows API, OLE and ActiveX controls, ODBC configurations, etc. A long time ago (1985) I wrote a computer book (LOTUS 1-2-3 SELF-TAUGHT) which sold 50,000 copies. I also wrote the networking chapter of a Java book in 1996. Go to amazon.com, type in Ira Krakow, and you'll be able to buy them!
In the Linux world, I'm a relative newbie. I've only seriously gotten into Linux for the past 3 months. I'm very excited about Wine/Winelib as the way to bridge between Windows and Linux applications. My goal is to show other Windows developers how to port their applications over and escape from the clutches of Microsoft.
Brian has a wealth of knowledge and is a pleasure to talk with. I'm thrilled to be teaming up with him and I'm sure we'll produce a book that will find its audience quickly. I've been lurking on the wine-related groups for 2 months and have been impressed with the depth of knowledge and willingness to share that you have.
As I get up to speed in winelib, I'm sure I'll have questions. Actually, I have one now - note that Chapter 12 is a "Case Study ... Porting", with content to be determined. Has anyone done a port of some substantial Windows code to Linux using Winelib? What do you think should be covered in this chapter? Please feel free to contact me at ikrakow_1999@yahoo.com about this or any related topic.
Thank you for your attention. I look forward to (virtually) meeting all of you.
Sincerely, Ira Krakow ikrakow_1999@yahoo.com