Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!caen!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!trantor.harris-atd.com!trantor!chuck From: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano) Newsgroups: comp.org.acm Subject: Re: Communications Message-ID: <6545@trantor.harris-atd.com> Date: 18 Jun 91 13:31:58 GMT References: <794@seqp4.UUCP> <1991Jun16.160625.27644@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> Sender: news@trantor.harris-atd.com Reply-To: chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com Distribution: usa Organization: Advanced Technology Dept, Harris Corp, Melbourne, FL Lines: 59 In article , rschwart@paul.rutgers.edu (Bob Schwartz) writes: > It is embarassing, in this age of desktop publishing and increased > general interest and awareness of document design, to see ACM's > flagship publication go off the deed end. It reinforces the > stereotype that most computer folks can't be trusted to have good > design sense (except for code). CACM also serves to point out that layout artists know NOTHING about computers. I am referring to the content of the pull quotes, those big bits of text pulled from an article to fill out the page. There may be more vacuous statements in those articles, but I doubt it. For example, the June issue offers these amazing insights: All computations in NUT are performed with objects. Every object belongs to a class and has a value. Whoa! Hold me back! Computation with objects? And each one has, let me get this straight, a value? Whooeee! Looks like my degree has expired! How about Expressions may be classified as arithmetic, memory and control, depending on the types of their operands and results. Yikes! Operands AND results? This is heady stuff! I'm sure glad CACM is highlighting the bleeding edge technology. I'm fully expecting this sort of pull quote in a future issue: The computer runs faster when you plug it in the wall. or Pressing a "key" transmits that character to the machine. Most pull quotes are extracted by layout artists as they fill the pages. They obviously try to find quotes with "computer words" in them. Sadly, no one seems to check these quotes after they've been pulled, to make sure they aren't so simplistic. If someone from CACM tells me that the editors pull those quotes, then they're REALLY in trouble. On a separate note, did anyone else find those articles on Soviet computing rather... pedestrian? I think CACM is suffering from the "We're friends with the Soviets, so let's publish their stuff" craze sweeping the magazine world. Perhaps publishing Soviet articles that are state of the art would be a better strategy. Unfortunately, I think the acceptance criteria are significantly reduced for Soviet authors. -- Chuck Musciano ARPA : chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com Harris Corporation Usenet: ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!chuck PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912 AT&T : (407) 727-6131 Melbourne, FL 32902 FAX : (407) 729-3363 A good newspaper is never good enough, but a lousy newspaper is a joy forever. -- Garrison Keillor