-----Original
Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at
classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
bounces at
classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Richard
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 10:45 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Dr. Dobbs to cease?
In article <FF6AB92D97A23A409701CDBF66F03FCD2A56EDE1 at 505fuji>,
Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> writes:
I'm not complaining, but it is a touch sad
that DDJ, C Users Journal
and the like are part of history. It was fun to see people argue about
the syntax of some obscure C construct or the virtues of one architecture
over another, and even more fun to weigh in. -- Ian
The same experience exists today, its called the 'net. Whether its
mailing lists, or comp.lang.c++, or a blog, the social interaction is
still there -- its just not mediated by a dead tree magazine. We
don't *need* the magazines as a springboard for our conversations
anymore -- we can talk to each other directly. The community of
programmers is more alive than ever from where I sit, its just not
happening on the pages of dead tree magazines like BYTE or DDJ.
--
I disagree, and that's part of my original comment. That 'mediation' you
denigrate is not terribly unlike what academic journals call 'peer review'
- not just any goofball could shoot off his mouth. With the 'dead tree
magazines' I knew there was some sort of editorial oversight, which raised
the signal-to-noise ratio and lowered the waste of my time. And with
multiple publications, I could choose my 'filter factor.' By comparison,
it isn't at all uncommon for mailing list threads to get hijacked by
various forms of distraction, and the blog has nowhere near the level of
accountability to, well, anything.
The open communication of the 'net and the focused delivery of a
publication are two complementary concepts, and I'm sorry to see one of
them apparently dying off.