#Amiga-Hobby or Lobby
4 messages in this thread
Computer Language's contents are set by its editors, not its readers. Less
than 10% of what you see in the magazine comes to us unsolicited.
I'm a guest in this forum, and conscious that my welcome here is a
precarious thing. So I'll not comment much further on your messages.
But managing the magazine's contents is the editor's responsibility, pure
and simple. "The readers didn't send us any articles on that subject" is,
to my way of thinking, an unacceptable excuse. It's an admission that the
editors are not directing the magazine as they are paid to do.
Reasonable adults might disagree on this topic.
Just noticed your editorial 🙂 and thought I'd throw my two cents in. I
subscribe to both Dr. Dobbs and Computer Language (Dr. Dobbs 1st) and enjoy
them both for different reasons. The articles in Dr. Dobbs tend to be more
practical by way of concrete example (with lots of code) whereas the draw
of Computer Language is the somewhat more esoteric ramblings of your
consistently entertaining (and informative) columnists. Keep up the good
work – both of you.
P.S. I also subscribe to Embedded Systems (a sister publication) and am
missing the April, May, and October issues. Anything you can do about
that?
Send me your address in a 'plex and I'll get you the missing Embedded
Systems Programmings.
I'm very pleased to get your impressions about the differences between
Computer Language and DDJ. As competitors, we are always trying to find
ways to describe the factors that distinguish us.
DDJ runs much more code than Computer Language. I've consistently found
that the most practical and useful manuscripts I've seen don't require that
much code. The real problems in software development have to do with
analyzing the problem, creating and debugging a plan of attack, structuring
development around sound engineering principles like reusability,
developing an effective and comprehensive testing/debugging program, and
solving the ongoing maintenance problems. The latest versions of 1-2-3 and
Word and dBASE weren't late because the programmers didn't understand
pointers. And your own projects aren't behind schedule because you don't
understand C. The big challenges are elsewhere.
I like the code-oriented magazines, but I've deliberately steered Computer
Language away from that tradition. I think software developers have to read
*both* magazines or they'll miss out on important information that would
help them do their jobs.
so that is why you only printed a few header files in my November article?
It was close to a thousand lines when I sent it in!
Funny though, at the same time I had an article in DDJ that was also about
a thousand lines of code, and they only printed a few headers. And DDJ
does not pay by the page 🙂