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Riccardo Ettore, 47, was born in Cairo, Egypt, and grew up in Como, Italy. After a stint of 19 years in Brussels, Belgium, he currently lives in London, England, with his Tasmanian-born wife, Philippa, and their two children Miki, 27, and Guy, 23. His obvious enthusiasm for Macintosh computers shines through when he mentions that, at last count, there were 11 Macs around the house and in boxes in the garage. These range from a 1986-vintage MacPlus, which he says is still usable! to a 2000 Powerbook. |
While sitting around last year trying to figure out whom to interview for ResExcellence, I decided to type up a list of the software and authors that interest me. This small exercise quickly answered my question. Why not ask the author of the program that was doing most of the work for me in one way or another virtually every day? TypeIt4Me!
I started the interview by asking Mr. Ettore, who works in the IT (Information Technology) department of an international organization, to give the readers at ResExcellence some insight about what equipment he normally uses. The very first sentence should make many jealous. It did me!
"My main Mac is a 2000 Powerbook (aka Pismo). I like to work in an armchair rather than at a desk and don't leave home without my Mac so it has to be a Powerbook! My son Guy has recently bought himself a Blue G4, which has now replaced the old 8100 on my desk (he generously allows me to use it every now and then!)."
Of course, a program like TypeIt4Me provides a lot of varied uses, and that is what makes it so special. I feel that almost every day I find another way to apply it to my work. I have a clear expectation of the way I want to use it. Still one wonders what Riccardo’s expectations were for even taking on the development of TypeIt4Me.
"It originated as a project to create an on-screen keyboard for paraplegics. Having patched the OS to intercept mouse clicks and generate typing, I then went on to develop code that would replace characters typed on the regular keyboard. I soon found it very useful myself and decided to release it as shareware back in 1989.
"I certainly never expected it would become so popular and that I would still be supporting it and writing new versions eleven years after the original release!"
As you can tell by my preamble above, I fell in love with TypeIt4Me almost immediately, and I am just an average user at best. There are, I am sure, power users who really can make it work in ways I haven’t thought of. Who do you find typically uses this software the most?
"TypeIt4Me is useful to anyone who ever types text at his Mac. However, I find that heavy users are doctors, medical transcriptionists, journalists, writers, lawyers, chat and game room hosts, and students writing their theses."
Wow! That’s a pretty diverse group of people. You list gamers to professionals using TypeIt4Me. That must make you proud and inspire you for further development. And what would an interview with a software author be without prying you for some information about upcoming betas and future releases? Therefore, I am sure you were expecting the following question! What plans are in store for TypeIt4Me in regards to new features? And since we have a lot of visitors to our site, do you ever need beta testers? I am sure some readers from ResExcellence would jump at the chance to help you out.
"As it happens, I am about to release a beta version of 4.8.2, which was made necessary to work around a problem introduced by Appleworks 6, where typing is abruptly halted after about 90-odd characters. While I'm at it, I've also fixed it so that, if you are using multiple data files, TypeIt4Me will remember the one you were using last when you restart. I would, therefore, certainly welcome beta testers who should check my web site to see when the beta version is out."
Michael Coyle, our beloved Webmaster™, wanted me to ask you about your feeling towards Apple computer. Do you feel they are giving small developers, such as yourself, the support they need? Then if you could chime in to give some advice to any enterprising developers out there who are developing on their own, such as yourself.
"I've been using Apple products since January 1978 and have been a Mac evangelist since 1984, and I was very glad to see the way Steve Jobs managed to reverse Apple's fortune in the last couple of years.
"I was very frustrated in the early days of Mac (1984-86) when it was nigh impossible to get hold of Inside Mac and obtaining any technical documentation was extremely difficult. Luckily, the advent of CD-ROM first and the Web more recently has provided a vast improvement, and I am generally satisfied with the Apple Developer Connection (or I would not have renewed a couple of weeks ago my $500 yearly membership fee!).
"I must admit to being disappointed at present at not having found/received any specific information on how to achieve the equivalent of Trap patching under OS X to allow me to port TypeIt4Me to the new OS. Hopefully, this will change after the WWDC in San Jose next month (I will not be making the trip this year, but Apple always sends CDs with all the info presented at the Conference to all ADC members)."
As to the small developer question he responds: "If they have a program that they find useful or fun when they use it themselves, then by all means distribute it as shareware. Chances are that others will find it worthwhile to purchase. Also, keep your programs small and focused, leaving "featuritis" to programs written by big corporations."
While we are on the subject of Apple… it appears that a lot of impressive features are going to be available in Mac OS X. I suppose this would be as good a time as any to get your take on Mac OS X and in particular to ask a major question on the minds of everyone: "Is TypeIt4Me going to be compatible with OS X?" Do you foresee any problems?
"Well, I know for a fact that TypeIt4Me does run in the ‘Classic’ environment under Mac OS X, but naturally, I would like to make it work as a native service. As I said above, I've yet to understand how I will accomplish this. Apple is still releasing documentation as we speak; I've just downloaded the KDK (Kernel Extensions Development Kit) and, hopefully, it will shed some light on the subject."
Let’s change directions for a moment if that is okay. Since I handle the Software Archive at ResExcellence, I always like to ask people I talk with what software they are using in the way of shareware and freeware. What are you using on your machine now, and what do you find valuable or useful?
"Quite a few: GraphicConverter, Quicknailer, Stuffit, Docmaker, Drop Drawers, Fetch, FolderPICT, Hotline Client, MacTuner, SoundApp, Internet Explorer, and Netscape Navigator. I would use Outlook Express, but the Claris emailer still has a feature that makes it superior, in that it can check multiple accounts, including AOL inboxes. I regularly visit VersionTracker to see what's new or updated."
When I was putting together some questions to ask you, I remembered reading that Deborah Shadovitz, author of Mac Efficiency 101 at Mac Central, was a big fan of TypeIt4Me. I decided to ask if she had anything on her mind regarding TypeIt4Me. She responded without hesitation and shot off the following questions.
Q: Riccardo, do you have any plans to enable T4M be able to open multiple files at once? That way I could have a file for my personal stuff - which I'd always keep open. Then I'd have one for each project so it can be open as I'm working on that project. That way users could do a lot more automation and just have the appropriate shortcuts running as needed.
"Many users have asked this (or similar functionality), so I have been giving it some attention already. I am not excluding that I'll add this type of feature in a future release, but as usual, I cannot make any promises on if/when."
Q: What programming skills were required, or better yet, what programming tools did you use to develop TypeIt4Me?
"TypeIt4Me is written in C. I learnt to program in C back in 1986 by teaching myself on the basis of source code floating around the Internet (actually Compuserve back then, since I had no Internet access until 1995!), magazine articles (mainly MacTech), and a LOT of trial and error. This was before the advent of extremely useful tools like Think Reference."
Considering the popularity of the Linux OS, I would be remiss in not asking at least one question about it. We even have a portion of our site dedicated to this OS. The question is really two parts: Have you spent any time with the Linux OS, and secondly, as a programmer, what are your feelings on Open Source?
"I have no experience with Linux. As for Open source, I like the idea of thousands of programmers worldwide being able to debug and improve upon the code. I doubt that I would ever be brave enough to show my own source code to the world!"
Let us bring this interview to a close by telling our readers how you relax. I imagine it is far away from the computer although I know many people — including myself — that often find this a great way of relaxing. What is it that you like to do in your "spare" time?
"Incredibly, my main hobby has remained ‘computing’ in spite of it being 22 years since I first bought my first Apple II in January 1978!
"Other hobbies I've had or still have include stamp collecting, photography (lately using a digital camera, but initially it was the full darkroom and chemicals job), listening to music (mainly rock, flamenco, and samba, but also classic, big bands, salsa, etc), satellite tv dx'ing (I like hopping from channel to channel using a motorized dish, just to see what I can receive from far away lands). What I'd really love to do is to play a musical instrument, but I doubt I'll ever have enough time/patience to do it properly.
"Of course, these days the pursuit of these other hobbies often involves using the computer as I surf the 'net for news on the latest cameras, music, satellite channels, or even lyrics and tablature to try and play some samba on my guitar, so as far as my wife is concerned, I'm always ‘computing’ even when I'm not actually writing code in C!
"Since moving to England, I've also learnt to appreciate walking in the fields of Kent, which I find very relaxing."
Thanks, Riccardo, for taking time from your busy work schedule to answer a few questions for our ResExcellence readers. Especially, thank you for TypeIt4Me, a really top-notch program.
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