VendorDA is a database of 1246 Macintosh product vendors, which also includes related companies whose products may connect to or provide support for those products; e.g., IBM and NeXT don't make Macintosh products, but you may need to contact them for networking information. It includes the Vendor's name and state (for time zone reference), the main phone number, a sales (or product information) number, and a technical support/FAX/BBS number. Facimile and BBS numbers have been included for some vendors for whom: 1) I could not obtain, or who do not maintain a separate support number, and BBS numbers have been included specifically for some vendors who offer product updates via modem.
Basically, VendorDA is intended as a "Quick & Dirty" look-up for those people who do a lot of vendor contacts as a part of their work, but should prove useful to just about anyone who needs to contact a developer of products they use on a day-to-day basis.
ABOUT THIS RELEASE
This version of VendorDA includes 435 changes & updates to the previous release. Of the now 1246 vendors listed I have verified over 90 by phone or cross-checked with other media (electronic & print). I will continue to do some level of voice verification throughout the lifespan of VendorDA, and constantly seek new vendors from a myriad of sources. I keep a file called "VendorBits" specifically for that purpose.
Usually, when I find a potential conflict between VendorDA and another source, I first include it in VendorBits, and then later verify the new data either by directly contacting the vendor or by a third source.
HISTORY
VendorDA started life as a "real" desk accessory (DFIL) in February of 1992, as a working aid for our Apple Dealership. I created it out of frustration at having to constantly look up phone numbers for vendors from notepads, in magazines, or even scraps of paper (mainly PostIt™ notes) that I had not yet bothered to catalog. The seed database was provided by scanning in the Ingram/MicroD (a computer products distributor) catalog of vendors, and converting it to text with OmniPage -- a technique better known as "OCR" (optical character recognition). This provided about 250 vendors, to which I added another 100 from various sources. The DA was an instant hit, and everyone wanted it for their Mac.
In April of '92 I decided to 'go public' with VendorDA, and released v1.2 to the World as 'donationware' -- if you liked it and felt a compulsion to send money, then I included three charities to whom you could send $5-10. I don't remember if it was GEnie or AOL where I first posted the release, but it's not really important.
In July of '92 our dealership went bankrupt, and I was (and still am) without permanent employment. I make do with the odd consulting job, and basically live off my retirement income from the military, where I spent 20 years as a Russian linguist.
VendorDA 1.3 was released in September '92 with about 100 new listings, but still as 'donationware,' for some reason. I guess it still hadn't dawned on me that this could be a source of income in the form of shareware, but maybe I was hoping to find a job in the near future. It wasn't until version 1.4, released in April of '93 that VendorDA went shareware, and started to get some attention. (But I don't think the two are related.)
Version 1.4 was a major update, and doubled the size of the database. It was a combination of three databases: mine, one I downloaded off a Univerity of Chicago BBS, and one sent to me by a consultant in Dallas. That resulted in a database of over 2400 entries, that got pared down to a resulting 845 during de-duping and updating.
Since its initial public release VendorDA has tripled in size, and is used on thousands of Macintoshes around the world. I have registered users from Apple Computer, Claris, GDT Softworks, Cornell University, Lawrence Livermore Labs, Sandia Labs, and Motorola wants to site license it for worldwide use (but I'm not holding my breath on that one!).
An interesting statistic is that despite having registered users from places as far flung as Japan and Cyprus, over a quarter of registrations (28%) come from California. I don't know if this is indicative of some maternal compulsion (seeing as Cupertino is the Mac's birthplace), or because Californians have more money, but I certainly wish the feeling and/or wealth would spread, as I currently have only 152 registered users! I'm obviously not going to retire to some tropical island off of the income.
HOW TO USE
I don't know how you work, but I would suggest the best place to 'install' VendorDA is either the Apple Menu Items folder (for System 7 users) or just plop it on the Desktop, out there in plain sight! VendorDA is an application, so there's really no 'installing' to do -- just drag it where you want it, and double-click it when you want to use it.
Once in VendorDA there's not a lot to learn. Treat it like you would when navigating any other document in any other Mac application; i.e., click on the scroll bar or arrows to move up and down through the database, or use the 'Page' menu to move a page at a time.
The fastest way to navigate the database, however, is via the Index menu. I've created a default index that will usually get you within one page of the desired listing. If you'd like to create your own index, see the section on indexing below.
I've configured the default page size in each version (color/B&W) to the lowest common denominator for each. In the case of the color version, the page size is about the size of a 13" RGB display (or 470x460), and in the B&W version the page size is set to that of a 9" monochrome monitor (about 470x320) -- both subtract the height of the menu bar and title bar (about 40 pixels) from the actual monitor resolution. But neither is 'locked into' that page size. If you have a larger monitor, just drag the window to the vertical size you want. Unfortunately, the application doesn't remember these 'preferences,' nor does it remember screen location.
If you DO resize the default window size, you'll find two things: 1) The data will scroll by slower on larger monitors when you page through; 2) The "Back [Cmd+B]" command no longer works. I know it's cool to see all that data on a large monitor, but some features 'break' as a penalty. If you're just looking up a single number, who needs a whole screen-full, anyway!
INDEXING
Indexing is the most useful feature within VendorDA. With this feature you can set up your own custom index. I've configured a default index for those who'd rather not bother, and I think you'll find them useful. But for those who'd rather roll their own index I offer the following suggestion: don't bother.
First, the default index will get you close to your final destination -- usually within one page of any listing. Is the few milliseconds an extra mouse click takes worth the trouble? Probably not.
Second, I cannot guarantee you will not mess up the default index by adding your own indices to mine, so you may end up having to either re-install VendorDA, or will have to delete the entire index and recreate it from scratch. I didn't write the carrier (Postcard), so I have no control over the glitches you will encounter by rolling your own index.
With these caveats out of the way, let me now explain how to actually use the indexing feature.
At any point in the document you can hold down the option key and click at a point you want to add to the index menu. This will bring up a dialog, which displays the current index and some buttons for Add, Remove, Move Up, and Move Down (to move items from one location to another in the index). The cursor will be in the top left text-entry box, and you can just type the word(s) you want to add to the index, and then click the 'Add' button. From this point you will have to use the 'Move Up' and/or 'Move Down' buttons to get the item to exactly where you want it to appear on the 'Index' menu. Then, just click the 'Add' button to 'fix' the menu item. Click on 'Done' to exit and use the new entry.
To modify any existing menu item, just Option+click anywhere in the window (which will bring up the dialog) and then click on the item you want to modify. The name will appear in the top right text-entry box, where you can modify it. When you're finished, just click on 'Done' to exit the dialog, and the modified index item should now be available.
To remove any index entry just Option+click on the window, select the item you want to remove, and then click 'Done' to exit and see the change(s).
To add a separator (like that below the Undo on the Edit menu), Option+click on the window, type a single dash ('-'), move it where you want it to appear, and click 'Done.'
This pretty much covers all the options for indexing. Again, I tried about a half dozen different variations on indexes, and found the one that comes as a default the most useful. I hope it is for you, too, but if not feel free to experiment. Just don't distribute your modified version, please.
ABOUT COPY & PASTE
Because VendorDA is basically a bunch of PICT resources strung together in a document viewer, you cannot copy & paste data from it (or to it). This is partly by intent, and part of the reason I don't use another 'text carrying/displaying' utility.
I've put hundreds of hours into compiling and maintaining this database. If you were me, would you just put it out there for everyone to copy and use? How many programmers include the source code with their applications? I consider the database to be the heart and soul of this product, just like source code is to any other computer application, so I'm not inclined to just release the text to the World.
Bob Seaver (AOL: RSEAVER) relates that there is an FKEY called "TEXT Capture 2.1" that will capture single lines to paste elsewhere. I have not tried it, but you're welcome to try it. I would imagine this FKEY is available on most of the on-line services, or via EduCorp (a large software/shareware vendor).
An alternative is to use the Notepad -- that little used, underestimated, built-in from Apple. Just call up the Note Pad desk accessory and type the number onto the Note Pad. From there the world's your oyster. I use this technique myself, and it works fine.
If you really need the ability to copy & paste, then register your copy of VendorDA, and send the extra $5 for the tab-delimited text file, and you can put it in whatever database application you'd like. I guarantee the $5 will save you at least a few hours of hacking the data out of VendorDA.
ABOUT TECHNICAL SUPPORT
I have run into varying attitudes among the vendors I have contacted for inclusion in VendorDA -- the attitudes run the spectrum from intense enthusiasm to downright "I don't want to be listed!" I justify including even those who don't want to be included by figuring that if *I* can find out their phone number, anyone else can, too. But I would at least ask the following of you...
If you call a vendor to ask for help, please at least do two things beforehand: 1) Check their manual for a troubleshooting chapter to see if your problem is covered, and 2) if you're running System 7, try restarting with the Shift key held down (to turn off extensions), and see if the problem goes away. If it does, it's likely the problem is yours, and not the vendor's -- though there technically could be some bad karma between a particular extension and that vendor's product. What I'm basically saying is that some of these vendors are tiny (some are just one person in a basement!), and you should do everything you can to try and isolate the problem before bothering them.
Other sources for help include the on-line services: America OnLine, BIX, Compuserve, GEnie, and Prodigy. Apple user groups can be a great source for help, as most maintain help lines, BBS's, and have monthly meetings with question & answer forums to crack the reluctant nut of a problem. Apple Computer maintains a database of all the user groups in the country, and you can contact them for the one nearest to you.
With this in mind, I'll leave you with a turn on an old Italian proverb: "A thousand phone numbers do not make one solution."
THE FUTURE
Past shareware payments have helped fund the purchase of a compiler. Thanks to all the folks who've made the effort and committment to support this product, there will hopefully be a 'VendorDB,' someday. For now, we'll all have to put up with the limits imposed by the 'Postcard' application. (And please...no suggestions on other "carrier applications." I've seen them all, and feel Postcard offers exactly the features I need.)
But I must be honest with you, and say I am very disappointed with the poor registration level. A hundred and fifty registered users doesn't make me want to bust my chops for this kind of return. In Mazlovian terms, it doesn't get my "self-actualization" engine turning very fast. This release was due out last December, but didn't show until the six-month mark, in part because of the poor return on the last release.
If things don't pick up with registrations, there may not be another update until this time next year, or none at all. As you can see from the number of changes, things are far from static in the developer world. By this time next year I can almost guarantee that a quarter of these phone numbers will be out of date.
It's your ball. It's your park. If you use it, support it!
