Jon Wiederspan

Hello all! I am the author of these lessons but that is not my paying job. By day I am a Research Consultant in Software Design for the Technical Japanese Program at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. I spend my time writing software to aid in Japanese language instruction, investigating network services that can be used to enhance distance language education (that's my excuse anyway), and providing support for people using Japanese on various computing platforms.

Updates

Contacting Jon

1. Please read the pertinent portions of the lessons over at least once more before sending me a request for help. At least half of the questions I get are answered in this documentation. The sections people seem to overlook the most are:
   • Where to get the latest versions of these scripts and lessons (see above)
   • How to save a script as a CGI application
   • Where to find the OSAXes, scripts, etc.
   • Why it is important to use WebSTAR to test your CGI applications instead of just using a WWW client (like Netscape or MacWeb).
   If you have a question in one of these areas, please read the section again and see if the answer is there.

2. Do not expect a speedy reply if you are asking me how to write a CGI that does X or Y (like writing to a file or adding to a database). The reason that information is not included here is that it takes a long time to make these lessons and each added lessons increases the support I have to put out. I am in the process of writing a book on the topic and the answers will likely be there. This is about all that I can do for free.

3. If you have trouble downloading a file from my anonymous FTP site, please try again at a later time. The site is also provided for free so I have no funding for staff to monitor it. I usually catch crashes within a few hours, though (unless they occur at night).

4. If you are reporting an error, misspelling, or something else to do with one of these pages, please include information on which page it was and where you got it from (bundled with WebSTAR? from my WWW site?). There are many versions floating around and it is difficult for me to keep track of them all.

5. Buy an AppleScript book! I don't have time to answer questions that deal only with AppleScript. It's a big topic and I'm just one little programmer.

I really do try to reply to everyone, but sometimes the backlog makes that very difficult. If by some accident I forget to reply to your message, be comforted in the knowledge that I do appreciate you writing. Your message will be well loved and cared for in some forgotten corner of my inbox.