Ada magazine

Ada magazine

[DEAN RUNZEL]

I have a question for the Ada community and the vendors. Has anyone ever
seriously considered starting a magazine with a primarily Ada orientation?
Recently, while in my local Barnes and Knoble (?) bookstore, I saw tons of
computer oriented magazines. There are special magazines for operating 
systems, virtual reality, home PC users, multimedia, and even one devoted
entirely to Internet computing.

Now, the bad news. There were at least three magazines dealing almost 
exclusively with C/C++ and even one devoted entirely to SmallTalk. Now
if SmallTalk can have a magazine on the shelves of a major bookstore chain,
why can't Ada?

Surely, the Ada gurus, (Mr. Feldman, Mr. Cohen, etc.) could write the 
education and technical articles. Mr. Taft could write the detailed language
articles. The Ada community would have a more natural forum to post Ada 
success stories. Students at the universities could contribute their work.
Interesting university student programming contests could be sponsored.
We could even poke (pun intended) a little fun at C/C++.

This has to be as cheap as constantly updating and distributing the CD-ROM
and managers are more likely to pick up a magazine off of my desk than to
ask to see my CD. Remember, not everyone has a CD-ROM computer but most
people have two eyes (No insult to my visually-impaired friends intended).

Can't someone see the logic of this? Would AJPO be willing to help?

If such a magazine were available would you subscribe? How much would you 
be willing to pay? Would you be willing to contribute articles on a regular
basis? Would you be willing to leave it on a prominent corner of your
desk?

Now that the hard part of getting a new standard is edone, let's let Ada
loosen her corset a little and have some fun!! How about some of the 
university professors having students write some fun stuff like games or 
really neat windows editors in Ada? Part of the problem is everyone thinks 
Ada is too technical. We've got something new and exciting. Let's PARTY!!

This is just my opinion, but let's stop being so stuffy and whining so much.
Let's stop spending time on me vs. you and devote our collective energy
to getting more exposure for Ada. Let's get a magazine, attend more non-
Ada conferences, encourage more students to write and submit Ada-based
papers to other conferences and stop just sitting behind our terminals and
complaining about the exposure C/C++ is getting.

Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of Ada!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate your comments.
Dean Runzel

Re: Ada magazine

[Capt. Britt Snodgrass]

At one time (1988-1989) there was a magazine called the "Journal of
Pascal, Ada, and Modula-2."  I liked it and used to buy it at
Waldenbooks.  Unfortunately, they stopped publishing about four years
ago.

+================================================================+
| Capt Britt Snodgrass          e-mail: britt@molokai.46tg.af.mil|
|                               member: Team Ada                 |
+================================================================+

Re: Ada magazine

[edmund oshaughnessy]

In article <3dc3k4$39k@monmouth.edu>, s0222353@moncol.monmouth.edu (DEAN
RUNZEL) wrote:

> Now, the bad news. There were at least three magazines dealing almost 
> exclusively with C/C++ and even one devoted entirely to SmallTalk. Now
> if SmallTalk can have a magazine on the shelves of a major bookstore chain,
> why can't Ada?

I wonder who buys these magazines, is it the hobbyist or the serious
professional user, I suspect the former. This may well preclude Ada
because the home-user market is too oriented to the PC/MSWindoze/C/C++
juggernaut.
> 
> Surely, the Ada gurus, (Mr. Feldman, Mr. Cohen, etc.) could write the 
> education and technical articles...

Personally I would be very interested to read such a magazine. I read all
the others but they do tend to be a bit dry, although I do miss 'Dear Ada'
in ACM Ada Letters.
> 
> This has to be as cheap as constantly updating and distributing the CD-ROM...

I'm not too enamoured of CD-ROMs and would prefer a more approachable
medium like a glossy magazine, which would include 'pointers' (suitably
typed of course :-) ) to ftp sites, Web pages etc. I've just checked out
the Ada WWW Server which I think is excellent. Perhaps in this day and age
a Web page is the electronic equivalent of a magazine.
> 
> Can't someone see the logic of this? Would AJPO be willing to help?

You can always ask!

> If such a magazine were available would you subscribe?

Yes.

> How much would you be willing to pay?

A few dollars/pounds, but I'd get my organisation to buy it!


> Would you be willing to contribute articles on a regular basis?

Ouch!


> This is just my opinion, but let's stop being so stuffy and whining so much...

Softly, softly catchy monkey! I think we'll wake up one day and realise
that Ada is very important to many businesses (e.g., the channel tunnel,
European ATC, etc) and has found her true market.

Happy Holiday!

Ed O'Shaughnessy.

Re: Ada magazine

[John H. Fogarty]

Thanks for a good post Dean. I enjoyed reading it.  No, I would not be
qualified to submit articles, at least not regularly, but I would be
willing to pay $40-50/yr for a subcription.
John Fogarty

Re: Ada magazine

[Michael M. Bishop]

In article <3dc3k4$39k@monmouth.edu>,
DEAN RUNZEL <s0222353@moncol.monmouth.edu> wrote:
>I have a question for the Ada community and the vendors. Has anyone ever
>seriously considered starting a magazine with a primarily Ada orientation?

I haven't thought about this before, but I must say that it is a very
good idea. There is an Ada magazine published by ACM, Ada Letters, so we
don't want to step on their toes. Maybe they would even help.

>Surely, the Ada gurus, (Mr. Feldman, Mr. Cohen, etc.) could write the 
>education and technical articles. Mr. Taft could write the detailed language
>articles. The Ada community would have a more natural forum to post Ada 
>success stories. Students at the universities could contribute their work.
>Interesting university student programming contests could be sponsored.
>We could even poke (pun intended) a little fun at C/C++.

Mike, Norm and Tucker would be excellent choices for magazine
contributors. I wonder if they would have time for something like this
since they seem to be involved in so many other things. Ada success
stories are currently published in Ada Letters, but there is no reason
we shouldn't publicize them as much as possible. 

>
>Can't someone see the logic of this? Would AJPO be willing to help?
>

I certainly see the logic of this idea. However, you're preaching to the
choir. We'd have to convince a publisher who may not see the logic of
it. As far as AJPO is concerned (isn't DISA supposed to be taking over
for them?), I can't speak for them.

>If such a magazine were available would you subscribe? How much would you 
>be willing to pay? Would you be willing to contribute articles on a regular
>basis? Would you be willing to leave it on a prominent corner of your
>desk?

I could subscribe to a magazine like this, and many c.l.a. readers would
probably subscribe to it, but the audience you'd need to attract is the
"maintream" computing crowd, many of whom don't read c.l.a. I would be
willing to contribute articles to such a magazine, but I have a bad
track record in terms of getting articles accepted. Therefore, you must
hope to find contributors more reputable than I. (Which is not as
difficult a task as I would like to believe. :-)


-- 
| Mike Bishop              | The opinions expressed here reflect    |
| bishopm@source.asset.com | those of this station, its management, |
| Member: Team Ada         | and the entire world.                  |

Re: Ada magazine

[Kevin Weise]

In article <3dc3k4$39k@monmouth.edu>,
DEAN RUNZEL <s0222353@moncol.monmouth.edu> wrote:
>I have a question for the Ada community and the vendors. Has anyone ever
>seriously considered starting a magazine with a primarily Ada orientation?

Back in mid- to late- 80's, there was a magazine titled "Journal of
Pascal, Ada, and Modula-2".  While it did publish articles with code, it
seemed to me that, more often than not, the topics were, well, trivial
(e.g., recommending that programmers have exception handlers for all
pre-defined exceptions in their main program, so you can know which one
was raised; primarily good for debugging.  Please, no flames on this,
I'm trying to recall the context of the article from memory).  It
finally died, succumbing probably to starvation.  Now, I know there are
people out there who liked the magazine.  But I can't see how it could
compete against articles covering such topics as digital signal
processing and 6-degree-of-freedom computations, for example, in
magazines like Embedded Systems.  

In a very real sense, the Ada community does have a magazine.  Its
called "Ada Letters", and is published by the ACM SIGAda.  If you want
something flashier, with slick glossy covers & cool graphics, I would
recommend that people begin submitting more articles to Embedded
Systems, PCWeek, etc.  They have been known to publish articles
favorable to Ada.

>Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of Ada!
>

I agree. As for myself, I would love to find the time to finish a
particular component of interest (parameters of electromagnetic radiation
scattered by a sphere) and see who would be interested in publishing a
brief paper about it.

>Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate your comments.
>Dean Runzel
>
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Re: Ada magazine

[Richard Riehle]

In article <3dqrk3$vi8@source.asset.com> bishopm@source.asset.com (Michael M. Bishop) writes:
>In article <3dc3k4$39k@monmouth.edu>,
>DEAN RUNZEL <s0222353@moncol.monmouth.edu> wrote:
>>I have a question for the Ada community and the vendors. Has anyone ever
>>seriously considered starting a magazine with a primarily Ada orientation?
>
The notion of a magazine devoted exclusively to Ada is commendable, but we
should not overlook the oportunities to infiltrate the more more conventional,
more mainstream publications with stories about Ada. 

I have been doing this for several years, and the editors are usually quite
willing to dedicate some of their expensive space to Ada articles when 
those articles conform to their editorial policy.  

The opportunties are worldwide. Not only can you write for the well-known,
slick and glossy pubs such as Dr. Dobbs, Software Development, Windows Tech,
Embedded Systems Programming, Journal of Object Oriented Programming; don't
overlook the less widely distributed journals. For example , The Journal
of Structured Programming, or DPMA's Data Management, or the official
publications of any of the computing societies.

There are also opportunities in the platform-specific magazines such as 
DEC Professional, Interact, Sun Observer, Advanced Systems, and numerous
others. Some of these publications even pay a few dollars (very few, to be
sure), so you can use the proceeds of a published article to take your
spouse to dinner.

Start with an idea. The idea should be built around the solution to some
problem. The wider the appeal of the problem, the better. 

The focus of your article should be something other than Ada.  Ada should be
the medium which supports a solution, not vice-versa. I have even used the
technique of including code in two languages, C++ and Ada, side-by-side.
This makes the reluctant C++ reader a little more willing to consider the
validity of your Ada solution.  

Once you have a good handle on what you want to say, send a query letter
to the editor of a magazine.  Don't worry about rejection. Every writer gets
rejected sometime. Some editors will like your idea but have suggestions
to improve the article.  

Summary:

We will do better with articles about Ada in the non-Ada press than simply
talking among ourselves. The opportunities are there. Try it.

Richard Riehle

Re: Ada magazine

[Bob Wells #402]

Kevin Weise <weisek@SOURCE.ASSET.COM> writes ....
< snip >

> called "Ada Letters", and is published by the ACM SIGAda.  If you want
> something flashier, with slick glossy covers & cool graphics, I would
> recommend that people begin submitting more articles to Embedded
> Systems, PCWeek, etc.  They have been known to publish articles
> favorable to Ada.

< snip >

What about if instead of "diving in at the deep end" and trying to come
up with a full magazines worth of Ada every month, we see if we can start
up a regular section in magazines like Embedded Systems, Defence
Electronics, PC Magazine and even Byte?

Like Kevin said above, these magazines are known to have published
articles favourable to Ada. (Why wouldn't they, after all it means they
get more people reading their mag!)

If we started submitting articles to such "mainstream, available just about
everywhere" magazines then we should be able to put Ada "in the face" of
many C/C++, FORTRAN, COBOL, etc. people. (Why, what was that Hortense? Did
you say Trojan Horse? Now really!   (-:   )

I'm sure that many people would be interested in such articles as "Using of
the new features of Ada 95 to correctly implement .........." (insert
favourite OO pradigm/construction/method here).

Imagine what could happen if all these people "clunking along" using C++
to try and implement certain OO constructs saw the elegance and ease of
the Ada 95 version!

Imagine all those people finding that a free Ada compiler was available
via ftp! (Why we might even get a Windoze port for GNAT out of it?)

Imagine having Ada visible to management reading such glossies every
month and not just when a magazine decides to run their bi-yearly special
Ada issue!

Imagine the feedback we would get from people looking at Ada 95 from
outside? Such alternative viewpoints are, IMHO, extremely useful, especially
when you have been looking at something "from the inside" for too long!

As a suggestion, why not pick a magazine and then possibly reprint an
article from Ada Strategies or Ada Letters when there was nothing
available? We could have someone from c.l.a possibly in charge of
submissions. When it was geting close to put the mag to bed, if there
was nothing available then they could "plead" (-:   , via c.l.a, for
suggetsions or submissions.

G'day Ralph Crafts, what do you think of this idea?

G'day Ed Seidowitz, has your favourite "article example" "the bank accounts"
been updated for Ada 95 yet?

What about as an introduction article we use the article about the
Ada vs. Ada 95 differences that .... wrote? (Sorry having a brain fart
here, was it John Barnes who wrote such an article?)

Any further ideas? David Weller what say you?

Happy New Year everyone!

@                   --------
@          ////  - ( G'day! )
@         (o o)     --------
@ ----oOO--(_)--OOo--------------------------------------------------------
  Bob Wells         "The marvels of today's modern technology include the
                     development of a soda can, when discarded will last
                     forever ... and a $7,000 car which when properly cared
                     for will rust out in two or three years."
@ INTERNET: wel@eurocontrol.de                 Compu$erve:      100272,3004
@ The Ada WWW Server is http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/                 Team Ada
@ For exciting Ada info enter 'finger wel@s4ecawel.eurocontrol.de'

Re: Ada magazine

[David Weller]

In article <9412311314.AA10313@eurocontrol.de>,
Bob Wells #402  <wel@EUROCONTROL.DE> wrote:
>Any further ideas? David Weller what say you?
>
Dave has gone into "lurk" mode.  I am trying, VERY hard, to get a
release of the Booch components (Queue hierarchy) done by Jan 2nd.
As a result of overextension on other projects, I'm behind my planned
release schedule by three weeks now.  

As Robert Firth has pointed out, we need to brag about our
_accomplishments_, not our plans.  Once I get this accomplished,
you'll hear me crow in my usual manner :-)


-- 
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