When Tom Snyder came to me with the idea of a book called "AIR," I was intrigued...wanted to know a little more. After all, Tom is one of our very most popular authors and seems to have hit a chord with our readership. My intrigue soon turned into unbridled enthusiasm when he explained the concept...advanced and fully integrated RPG with the more current technologies of our day.

For several years now, people have been coming up to me at COMMON and at the Summit where I run a bookstore for attendees and asking me what I have on advanced RPG programming. I didn't really have a good answer for them beyond built-in functions and free-format. These certainly are tools that the RPG programmer should have in their toolbox, but the programmers who were coming to me wanted to do more. Their quest was not for new technique just to make themselves better programmers; it was for being able to implemented new technologies to deliver more robust applications...solutions...for their customers (users).

What could be more timely than being able to integrate email into applications? One of the reviewers of the book says that he purchased the book just for this reason. "Of course other solutions are out there," the review says, "but most tend to be clunky (SNDSST? Give me a break!) and depend on a local mail server to do the actual work...many of my clients don't have an in-house email server, so the ability to use any email server with the ability to sign on with a user ID and password is a big plus for me, and the JavaMail solution gives me that in spades."

We've also had good feedback on the techniques Tom includes that allow RPG programmers to implement the power of PDFs into their applications including advanced formatting, images, wrapping text, and bar codes. And if you're wanting to provide more functionality than just basic .csv files for your Excel users, Tom includes technique for advanced formatting, formulas, and charts.

It's been fun to bring out a book that has created a bit of a buzz. I'd be anxious to hear what any of you have to say about it. Or, for that matter, what else you'd like to see in our bookstore.

<a href=http://mc-store.com/5105.html>Advanced, Integrated RPG</a>

All the Best,
Merrikay Lee