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The Perl Journal Bought by CMP 42
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 (Score:1)
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! (Score:1)
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 (Score:1)
Re:Byte (Score:2)
Re:Sad day for Perl Journal (Score:2)
Re:extra $ and @ characters (Score:1)
Why am I reminded of the Babylon 5 episode Conflicts of Interest?
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Byte (Score:3)
Then. (Score:4)
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.
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Binders needed (Score:1)
Re:Come on Taco! (Score:2)
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.)
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Come on Taco! (Score:2)
sigh (Score:1)
Best part about CMP (Score:4)
mnemonic (Score:1)
thEn for sEquence
Yes (Score:2)
Re:sigh (Score:2)
Wafers. Sheesh.
Assembly? (Score:3)
Uphill, both ways, in the snow.
And we liked it, too.
How can one subscribe? (Score:2)
Re:All that and a free subscription to SysAdmin (Score:2)
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... (Score:2)
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 (Score:4)
That's a very good news (Score:4)
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 (Score:1)
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 (Score:1)
This is great... (Score:2)
The gold rush (Score:1)
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.
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Sig
abbr.
Re:Assembly? (Score:1)
Not exactly... (Score:1)
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 (Score:2)
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 (Score:4)
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
[/HumorOff]
Perl doesn't Look like English (or German or Swahili), but it Acts like English.
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 (Score:2)
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.
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 (Score:2)
Oh it's wonderful, beautiful, I love it! (Score:2)
--No seriously, no one says where I can get mine.
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Re:Not exactly... (Score:2)
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Re:Best part about CMP (Score:2)
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 (Score:2)
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 (Score:3)
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 (Score:2)
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! (Score:2)
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 (Score:1)
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 (Score:5)
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 (Score:5)
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.