Back in November I asked what I thought was a relatively innocent question: "Are you guys really using those listings or what?" Now, following the deluge of letters that column generated, I have some answers. You use the listings.
The responses were interesting. Some of you were sure I planned to turn DDJ into another Byte by eliminating all the source code. in fact, several readers threatened to cancel their subscriptions immediately (as they had with Byte) if we stopped running the listings. Some readers pointed out that on-line access wasn't a practical option for all parts of the world. And a few, bless you, were charitable enough to note that I was asking for your feedback, not making a threat.
So, to follow up the topic I introduced last November: Yes, there are changes coming for DW. And no, we're not killing the source listings.
There are some repercussions from printing all that source code, however. As you must have noticed, a long listing can definitely limit the number of articles we can print in a given issue. Programs for the Mac and OS/2 environments seem especially prone to source listings that are much longer than we're used to. We'll do our best to fit things in without resorting to continuing a program through several issues of the magazine, but sometimes there's no completely satisfactory solution. (This issue, for example, we had to postpone Stan Krute's Mac column; next month it will run in its entirety.)
Listings aside, there are some changes planned for the coming months. Chief of these is a new review section coordinated by Ron Copeland. This is not an attempt to woo readers from PC Magazine, thank you very much, but an attempt to get more information to you about products of interest to programmers. We'll be printing reviews of compilers and libraries, not roundups of printers and surge protectors.
Examining Room, a monthly collection of short reviews debuts this month. As with the rest of the magazine, Examining Room is designed around your needs and feedback. If there's a product you're particularly fond of then let Ron or me know by mail, e-mail, or phone.
In other review news, it seems not everyone agreed with Allen Holub's review of C compilers a few months back. Check out the letters section for some of the flames from the CompuServe forum.
On the home front, the chaos around here has abated significantly with the addition of our new managing editor, Monica Berg. Monica is a veteran of innumerable deadline battles, having just completed a tour of duty at Unix/World before signing on here at DDJ.
One last note on this issue's theme before I go. Robert Ward's Debugging C (Que Corp., 1986) isn't a new title, but it is still one of the best books on the subject. He covers the traditional methods and the tricks specific to debugging C as well as the use of sdb and Codeview. Regardless of how you normally work, if you're programming in C, you'll probably learn something from this book. Highly recommended.