The Perl Journal Bought by CMP

pudge (Slashcode wrangler, MacPerl maintainer, and use.perl editor) wrote in to tell us that The Perl Journal has been bought by CMP. This of course ends the ongoing struggles with Earthweb that has resulted in many subscribers (including me) going without what is one of the best technical journals being published today. CMP of course publishes several other good journals including Dr. Dobbs. Besides Jon Orwant (who will continue as Senior Contributing Editor) nobody is happier to see TPJ return then me!

CMP and BYTE

[Anonymous Coward]

I can corroborate that CMP really screwed up the BYTE purchase.

First off, they fired the entire editorial staff (along with virtually all the rest of the staff), and I heard it was quite nasty in spots. So they threw away and alienated their greatest asset, some of the smartest and most knowledgeable writers in the business.

Then they stopped publishing and sat on the BYTE logo (as I recall, for about 1.5 years). Other posters here are representative of subscribers: angry at being jerked around, ignored and insulted.

When CMP rolled out the website, finally, it was a bit weak (lots of recycled content from other CMP books, as I recall) but it's gotten better. Still, it's not the old BYTE in terms of content or style.

Near as I can see, Jon Udell and Jerry Pournelle are the only guys with BYTE at the end still writing regularly for the online version. Jerry's got a ton of fans, and Jon Udell is one of the smartest guys around (check out his book, "Practical Internet Groupware" from O'Reilly). My guess is CMP threw enough money at them to get them to come back.

CMP doesn't have a great track record IMO. For instance they bought and then folded a bunch of networking mags in the last few years, and then there's the stuff that guy wrote about them in "Burn Rate" (check it out of the library, it's not worth buying).

Hope they do better by TPJ.

Quick to learn? Syntactically predictable? BS!

[cduffy]

Having the language be context sensitive is a horrid idea because it makes the actions of the interpreter much harder to predict. If the rules are few and set in stone, I can learn a language quickly and get to whatever I'm trying to do. If a language's rules are filled with exceptions, these must be coded around. Even worse, when a language with many rules changes a few, it's liable to break code; a language with few rules rarely needs to change any. Witness the amount of carnage in the language changes between perl 5.x and 6 versus between python 1.x and 2.x -- much less breakage occured in the latter case.

The number of rules used also has a major effect on a language's learning curve. A few years ago I volunteered to teach programming after hours at a local junior high. In one session a week for a month and a half, I taught 6 kids python -- and every last one understood the syntax (though several had issues with thinking algorithmically). I sincerely doubt such a feat would be possible with perl.

Perl's OO facilities are poor and have a "bolted on" feel. It doesn't lend itself to large, multi-person projects. While perl may try to get out of the way and allow a programmer to work, it does a horrid job. I'll take python, or even a high-level C library (for providing associative lists and the other nicities that Perl provides) over Perl any day.

Re:sigh

[Jaeger]

NAND gates! Children these days. We had to draw the layers by hand on the silicon wafer. None of those high-level gates for us. (Not even any new-fangled lithography.)

Re:Byte

[MikeFM]

Yes and I'd jsut renewed my subscription which they offered to replace with Windows magazine. When I refused they refused to send me anything or refund my money. For that reason I want to kill someone over at CMP to this very day. Not only did they kill one of my favorite magazines but they insulted my intellgience and stole from me. :P

Re:Sad day for Perl Journal

[MikeFM]

They did this to me with Byte. I think they have a major problem with it. An apology letter and a free subscription of my choice would earn my forgiveness but they were rude and unhelpful as could be every time I talked to them.

Re:extra $ and @ characters

[Captain Nitpick]

To the uninitiated, they all look the same, but let me open your eyes.

• $i is a faithful servant, to whom you entrust the results of your most elaborate calculation.
• $i is an ignoramus who can do little more than count to 10.
• $i is steadfast and will never change value.
• $i is liable to disappear, and can only be counted on when you're nearby.
• $i is a conniving back-stabber, who will change values in defiance of all laws of logic and program flow.

Why am I reminded of the Babylon 5 episode Conflicts of Interest?

"Zathras came with us to Babylon 4."

"Yes."
"Zathras stayed in the past with Valen."
"Yes."
"You are Zathras."
"Yes."
"Therefore, you went into the past."
"No, that was not Zathras, that was Zathras. There are 10 of us, all of family Zathras, each one named Zathras. Slight differences in how you pronounce. Zathras, Zathras, Zathras.. You are seeing now?"

--

Byte

[Midnight Thunder]

Weren't CMP the guys who bought Byte, killed the paper edition and then put up the web only edition (does anybody ever visit it?), simply because they felt it covered a market that was already covered by some of their other paper magazines, even though it was unique in its class?

Then.

[RPoet]

"Besides Jon Orwant (who will continue as Senior Contributing Editor) nobody is happier to see TPJ return then me!"

Really, you've got some extreme self confidence there taco, if you think people are so happy to see TPJ return, and then see you.

--

Binders needed

[gruntvald]

What we really need, is some hard cover plastic binders to keep all the old issues in. And then some spiffy new ones for the new issues.

Re:Come on Taco!

[maw]

It's really sad. (It really indicates a lack of pride in one's work, when one is effectively a journalist, to write so poorly.) I've found that I hardly notice the spelling mistakes anymore - they're so prevalent!

Some people claim that verbal skills are unessential in computing. They're sadly mistaken, as any literate person who has had the misfortune to work with a barely literate (are my standards for literacy higher than most? possibly) individual will tell you.

(It was a choice of moderating up or replying; I chose to reply. I'll probably be modded down for my efforts.)
--

Come on Taco!

[psidon]

I know this may be trite, but it's annoying as hell. Taco needs a lesson in the use of then and than. He never gets them right. So I suggest - when you think it's one, use the other.

sigh

[kworces]

Lazy, all of you. Nand gates are all you need.

Best part about CMP

[Snowfox]

The best part about any CMP publication is that you can receive the publication for free, so long as you're willing to fill out a lengthy form once a year and receive a bunch of relevant junk mail. (Although I strongly advise that you not put your correct office phone/fax on the form.)

mnemonic

[amorico]

thAn for compAre

thEn for sEquence

Yes

[wiredog]

And, while the Web Edition [byte.com] has some good stuff, especially Udells' columns, it's not as good as the old dead tree version.

Re:sigh

[wiredog]

Silicon Wafer!!! We used wire wrapped transistors, with cut up ping pong balls for the blinkenlights!

Wafers. Sheesh.

Assembly?

[wiredog]

Kids these days... In my day we coded in machine language! Raw hexadecimal bytes!

Uphill, both ways, in the snow.

And we liked it, too.

How can one subscribe?

[amyzing]

I've been hoping to renew my expired subscription since TPJ escaped from the clutches of Earthweb ... does anyone know how? The samag's "subscribe" link is for Sys Admin (I wouldn't really mind having that, I suppose, but I *want* TPJ).

Re:All that and a free subscription to SysAdmin

[amyzing]

Hmmm. That doesn't seem to be what CMP thinks. www.tpj.com has been updated, with an address to contact to ask about subscriptions, so I did. Here's the response:

Actually, TPJ is no longer being published by itself, however, it is now being published as a quarterly supplement to Sys Admin. A 1-year subscription to SA, which includes 12 monthly issues of SA and 4 quarterly issues of TPJ, is $39 ($58 for Canada and $69 for Int'l). You can either go to www.sysadminmag.com/sub or call 800.365.2210 to subscribe.

Re:Not exactly...

[orwant]

Actually, Taco's comment is fair. Yes, strictly speaking I did get TPJ back from EarthWeb in April. That was legal closure, but not quite relax-and-kick-back closure.

Running TPJ myself is impossible given my busy day job at O'Reilly. So relax-and-kick-back closure meant finding a good permanent home for the magazine, which I'm happy to say is now the case.

Re:All that and a free subscription to SysAdmin

[orwant]

It'll stay a physically separate magazine. What "supplement" means is that it'll be bagged with Sys Admin in the stores, and internally CMP will have one infrastructure for both Sys Admin and TPJ to save on costs.

That's a very good news

[chrysalis]

TPJ is an excellent publication for programmers. Not only for Perl programmers but for all programmers. There are very good algorithms and ideas to solve problems.
TPJ has only 2-3 pages of blah-blah and news of the world. The rest is 100% listings. These are solutions to real-world problems, with always good explanations from the author. It's also an excellent way to discover powerful Perl modules you never heard about before.
The only nasty thing about TPJ is when you live oversea. I live in France, and the paper edition of TPJ always comes to my mailbox 3 months late.
TPJ is that sort of magazine you don't throw away. You keep it, you archive all issues, because they are like an excellent up-to-date reference book.
I'd strongly suggest any programmer to subscribe TPJ. *But* you have to already know Perl to understand everything. TPJ isn't a good magazine for beginners. All articles assume that you already know all Perl basics (and some Perl intrinsics too) .

-- Pure FTP server [pureftpd.org] - Upgrade your FTP server to something simple and secure.

All that and a free subscription to SysAdmin

[w_arthurton]

It looks like in the press release that if you subscribe to TPJ you will get a free subscription to SysAdmin as well.

I hope that TPJ still comes as a whole separate magazine, at http://www.samag.com/tpj/ they call it a suplement.

Re:Why Perl Sucks

[Camel Pilot]

Alright I was waiting for the obligatory Perl sucks because ... it ... er ... ah ... does ... because ... it's ... um .... ugly and uses lot of $%#. But Python on the other hand is cool because ... its ... ah ... well ... you know its got a cool name.

This is great...

[jgerman]

... I was about to subscribe right before all the trouble before, so I held off. But now I can finally get a subscription. And get a quality magazine to my second favorite language.

The gold rush

[garoush]

CMP is repeating history.

During the "Gold Rush" in Calf., very few people became rich by finding gold. However, those who sold "digging equipments", were the once who became rich.

This is what CMP is doing -- selling the tools to make the tech. rather than digging for the tech. itself.

---------------
Sig
abbr.

Re:Assembly?

[ekidder]

You had hexadecimal? *We* had to flip switches. Which was good, because back in those days, those switches were hard to flip and a good programmer got plenty of exercise just from flipping.

Not exactly...

[bXTr]

This of course ends the ongoing struggles with Earthweb that has resulted in many subscribers (including me) going without what is one of the best technical journals being published today

Actually, Jon Orwant got TPJ back from Earthweb in April, and the latest issue was published in May. Taco ought to come out of his cave more than once every 4 months. But, then again, who cares about getting the facts straight on /., right?

NEVER use a spineless operating system.

Re:sigh

[bellings]

Transistors? Blinking lights? You're all nancy boys, with soft, weak girly hands.

In my day, we had to make our difference engines out brass gears, cams, and rods. We had to make our own gears, too!

Re:Why Perl Sucks

[Louis_Wu]

[HumorOn]
I agree. That's why I code everything in Assembly (on the 8086 architecture, none of this new stuff). Assembly lets you speed-tune code, and the days I spend making Hello World run .01 seconds faster are well spent in my book.
[/HumorOff]

Perl doesn't Look like English (or German or Swahili), but it Acts like English.

• In English, the words you use change meaning slightly depending upon the context - "I hate tapioca pudding", "I hate the man who killed my parents"; in Perl, the operators change meaning slightly depending upon the context - scalar, list, etc.
• In English you can often get away with omiting grammar which "should" be there, but you must know when your cheating will impair the receiver's ability to understand you - "Wanna go?", "Give it here."; in Perl you can omit much of the grammar which is technically correct - omit the semi-colon in the last line in a loop, omit most parentheses (but you can use them for clarity if you want).

Perl looks like a cross between chicken scratchings and line noise, but that is actually one of it's perverse strengths - it is short and quick to write. Take the substitute operator "s/ / /", where the first space is what you want to replace, and the second space is what you want to replace it with. If that were English it would look more like this, "Substitute( ) With( )", over a four-fold increase in typing for the programer. When coding in a language you know well, the later is frustrating and slow, while the former is short and unobtrusive.

Mr. Wall realized that programmers learn a language, regardless of what the commands look like. So he made a language which is easy to program, quick to program, and syntactically preditable, even if it doesn't have the most natural commands and operators. Programmers learn the language they work with, and after the learning is over, it doesn't matter much whether the operators are "natural language", except that natural language operators are longer than those in Perl, and therefore take more effort to use.

Perl trys to get out of the way and let you do your work.

Louis Wu

"Never, ever, EVER trust a telepath. I'm going to have that tattooed on my eyelids."

extra $ and @ characters

[The Pim]

They had to invest large amounts of money in custom typesetting machines that were outfitted with extra $ and @ characters.

This is more true than the average Perl acolyte knows. The devout Perl monk [perlmonks.org] has as many nuances on the $ as the eskimo has words for snow [urbanlegends.com]. To the uninitiated, they all look the same, but let me open your eyes.

• $i is a faithful servant, to whom you entrust the results of your most elaborate calculation.
• $i is an ignoramus who can do little more than count to 10.
• $i is steadfast and will never change value.
• $i is liable to disappear, and can only be counted on when you're nearby.
• $i is a conniving back-stabber, who will change values in defiance of all laws of logic and program flow.

TPJ, to its credit, has commissioned fonts for dozens of variants and pays a premium to the printer. They are pressing for inclusion into Unicode; but if they don't make it, Perl 6 will specify them in the Unicode private-use range, so everyone can use them in programs.

Re:Best part about CMP

[gowen]

Assuming you're URL isn't deceptive, it is quite possible to get Dr Dobbs from some newsagents in the UK. I can think of at least 2 near my house, which is in a smallish town in Staffordshire. Ask your newsagent!

Oh it's wonderful, beautiful, I love it!

[ellem]

--Great where do I send my $100 to get a year of TPJ and all the back issues?

--No seriously, no one says where I can get mine.
---

Re:Not exactly...

[ellem]

Hey! Go see Post #60 and answer it!
---

Re:Best part about CMP

[TotallyUseless]

Hope this anonymous coward checks for replies... Game Developer Magazine: free! [submag.com]
As far as Doctor Dobbs Journal, I had a free subscription at one point. I *think* I bought an issue, and the offer was on a card inserted into the mag, though I can't be sure anymore. I do remember that once I signed up, I was put on a waiting list to receive it, and had to wait a few months before my name came up.
Anyway, enjoy the free game developers journal and good luck with the ddj.

Pls. provide a CD with a full history of all TPJs

[mami]

I once ordered online all available TPJs from its beginnings, never got an answer to my order, never got the older journals.

Hopefully you find a way to make up for that. Looking forward to subscribe to the paper version, but want a complete set of ALL older journals too, in whatever format you can make them availalbe as long as they are readable "off-line".

Good news.

Unobfuscated Perl Contest

[Art_XIV]

How 'bout if TPJ sponsors an Unobfuscated Perl contest?

I'm serious, here. It's not very diffucult to make Perl code thats hard to understand, but it's a bit harder to make Perl code thats absolutely clear.

So how about an Unobfuscated Perl contest where the participants are rewarded for making the most difficult/obscure process the most clear? In 250 lines or less.

Sad day for Perl Journal

[Rick the Red]

This is bad news, at least for me. Now I won't be able to read an otherwise fine publication. I've avoided all their publications since they cancled Computer Language and promised a free subscription to Software Development that NEVER appeared.

I wrote several letters and made countless telephone calls; by the time they "corrected" the(ir) problem they claimed there were no more free subscriptions available, but they'd be happy to sell Software Development to me. Excuse me? You cancel a magazine I enjoy, promise me a free subscription to an alternate publication as a substitute, then refuse to deliver? Fuck 'em. Now I wouldn't read their crap if they PAID me.

You all may think this is good news, but to me the story is that Perl Journal has ceased publication.

Re:Come on Taco!

[Rick the Red]

I know what you mean. Like many aspiring engineers, my SAT math score was higher than my SAT verbal. But my math score was below average for entering freshmen engineers, and my verbal was above average. Go figure. I've endured illiterate engineers my entire career. (now I gotta spell check this post before I get flamed :-)

By the way, Taco, I find Wordsmyth [wordsmyth.net] and OneLook Dictionaries [onelook.com] useful (you don't need MS Windows to use a spell checker).

Re:Best part about CMP

[Nurgster]

I've seen Dr Dobbs in local newsagents 3 times over the course of 3 years. I bought it every time. I live in Banbury (near Oxford), but I used to live in Bath. Either case, CMP mags are a *very* rare sighting.

I'd be more interested in getting GDMag than Dr Dobbs, as it's more relevent to my field, but I have no hope of getting that (luckily most of the articles are on Gamasutra, so it's no big loss, but it's good to have paper copies)

Re:Best part about CMP

[Nurgster]

I found most of their publications are almost impossible to obtain outside the US, and they definately don't give them away to non-US people (except at trade shows).

What I'd do to be able to pop down my local shop any buy Dr Dobbs or even better, Game Developer Magazine...

Re:That's a very good news

[Waffle Iron]

TPJ has only 2-3 pages of blah-blah and news of the world. The rest is 100% listings.

This is one of the reasons the TPJ financial difficulties. They had to invest large amounts of money in custom typesetting machines that were outfitted with extra $ and @ characters.