Xref: utzoo comp.object:1730 comp.lang.c++:9367 comp.lang.eiffel:1076 comp.lang.smalltalk:2205 comp.software-eng:4130 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!render From: render@cs.uiuc.edu (Hal Render) Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: TOOLS '91 (March 4-8) - Call for Papers Keywords: Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems Message-ID: <1990Sep3.231826.23239@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Date: 3 Sep 90 23:18:26 GMT References: <402@eiffel.UUCP> <1990Sep2.193720.17672@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1990Sep2.230249.7858@ecn.purdue.edu> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Organization: U of Illinois, CS Dept., Systems Research Group Lines: 34 In article <1990Sep2.230249.7858@ecn.purdue.edu> giacomet@venus.ecn.purdue.edu (Frederic B Giacometti) writes: >In article sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes: >> ... They use our resources to make a worldwide >>call for papers, and then sell the bound journals at outrageous prices that >>students can't afford. I saw a collection of Siggraph papers for $136!!! > >And can't your library afford it? Don't be ridiculous, please. Wouldn't >you rather have something to say about the 50 - 80 $ textbooks you are >requested to buy, your "expensive" tuitions, the overpriced registration >fees, and whatever expenses ... Truth be told, my old department's library (U. of Illinois) *couldn't* afford to buy a proceedings I wanted because they had already spent their allotted money halfway through the year. Given what people elsewhere have told me, this is not an uncommon occurrence. Libraries are given only a finite amount of money, and given the size of the average user community, it is unrealistic to expect them to be able to afford to buy everything that someone wants. Thus, the student is often left to buy the things for himself. Now it is true that books, tuition, and registration are expensive, but at least those expenses can usually be justified by the cost of providing the goods or service. It is harder to understand why a paper-bound, 300-page proceedings printed on cheap stock and for which the authors had to do all of the formatting costs $80. That's what the proceedings with my paper in it costs, and that's the reason I don't have my own copy. >Anyway, which grad student would ever buy a Siggraph paper, even if it was >priced $10 ? Nobody in their right mind would pay $10 for a single paper, but I know a lot of grad students who would pay $10 for a proceedings. Hell, I know several who pay the list price. hal.