Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site packet.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!hpda!fortune!amd70!packet!cfv From: cfv@packet.UUCP Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: There is a "Modular C" (onto a tangent...) Message-ID: <282@packet.UUCP> Date: Thu, 30-Jun-83 12:24:51 EDT Article-I.D.: packet.282 Posted: Thu Jun 30 12:24:51 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Jul-83 22:34:27 EDT References: packet.270 <1517@tekecs.UUCP> Organization: PacketCable,Inc. Cupertino, CA. Lines: 31 I knew that 'Finite State Diagrams of ...' was written by Knuth. If it was written as a joke, it passed by me completely, as the tone of the article was VERY serious. I picked it out of many possible articles I could have lambasted simply because it was SO far gone from any base of reality. The whole problem with SIG{Plan,Ops,Sac,etc} is that rather than sending out information that is potentially relevant or useful (and in some cases accurate) they are turned into the last chance for the "Publish or Perish" groups because they are not refereed. I will agree that there are some VERY good articles in the publications. I will also state that there are MANY VERY bad, misleading, poorly written, obscure, useless or simply incorrect articles. At one point in Sigplan something like 30% of the publication was being used to correct mistakes in previous issues (mostly in Ada articles that have sinced moved to AdaTec). Errors in Ada are a special case since it is hard to hit a moving target but at the same time if someone bothered to work with the authors a little bit a lot of this could be reduced. Finally, I should point out that I am 1) not a compiler writer, and 2) don't want to be a compiler writer. What I AM interested in is language design and how language design and compilers interact (and sometimes interfere) with the programming process. For somebody who is writing compilers for a living perhaps SIGPlan is a more appropriate publication, but for me most of it is really worthless. (Trying to make this my last flame, honest!) -- >From the dungeons of the Warlock: Chuck Von Rospach ucbvax!amd70!packet!cfv (chuqui@mit-mc) <- obsolete!