Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!att!ihnp4!poseidon!ech
From: ech@poseidon.UUCP (Edward C Horvath)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: APDA
Message-ID: <489@poseidon.UUCP>
Date: 7 Sep 88 13:27:21 GMT
References: <6970@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 31

From article <6970@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>, by sorensen@hstbme.mit.edu (Gregory Sorensen):

! 	I'm thinking of becoming a "Certified Developer" for
! the Mac.  With the promo literature from Apple came an application
! for APDA.  Should I join?  I would in a flash except for some 
! negative comments on the net and stories like the one in MacWeek last
! week saying Apple was having difficulties with APDA and was going
! to stop using them, etc.  Is it worth the $20?  How is the service?

You haven't a choice if you intend to be a serious developer: a lot of Apple's
technical literature and developer products are available exclusively from
APDA.  Send 'em the $20 and smile.

I'm one of those who has complained about APDA -- or more precisely, about
Apple's decision to give a small volunteer organization exclusive
responsibility to serve tens of thousands of developers.

But my experiences with APDA have improved markedly over the past year or
so.  The folks on the order line now seem to be up-to-date on what is and
is not in stock, and it no longer takes two weeks to receive an in-stock
item via FedEx second-day air (yes, I actually had that experience in the
summer of '87).  Most recently I received MacApp 2.0B5, which hadn't even
been turned over by Apple, in three different packages within less than
two weeks of my order: APDA chose to ship each part of the partial order
as it became available.  I consider that EXCELLENT service, and I hope
we can depend on it to continue.

So credit where credit is due: APDA are getting better.  But you still 
haven't got a choice...

=Ned Horvath=