Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!watcgl!ksbooth
From: ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Ray Tracing Jell-O Brand Gelatin
Message-ID: <3464@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: 3 Mar 88 20:12:03 GMT
References: <20312@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <23187@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <3170@phri.UUCP> <1109@ogg.cgrg.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 31

>It first appeared in the 1987 ACM SIGGRAPH proceedings.  Good for a chuckle
>or two, but, like you said, not really what is expected of an academic 
>journal.  How about "The Journal of Irreproducible Results"??

1. Hopefully, just as there is always room for Jell-O, there is always
(a little) room for humor.  The SIGGRAPH '87 program committee did
agonize a lot (I am told) over the prudence of including this paper in
the conference.  I am glad they decided yes.  I doubt this will be a
regular occurrence at the conference, but every once in a while seems
a nice idea.

2. The particular issue of CACM in which this was reprinted had three
articles on computer graphics, one a survey article written by ACM
staff, one a transcript of Don Greenberg's Coons Award address, and one
the Jell-O paper.  I actually believe the three taken togehter give a
very balanced view of computer graphics.  Some will disagree.  The article
by Greenberg appeared as the result of a request from the SIGGRAPH Executive
Committee followed by the usual reviewing procedures for CACM.  The article
was also printed in the SIGGRAPH newsletter because some members of SIGGRAPH
are not members of ACM.  Many members of ACM are not members of SIGGRAPH.
For this reason we thought it important that the Greenberg article appear
in CACM as well.

3. CACM does not profess to be an academic journal in the sense of JACM
or similar publications.

4. People do realize that the first complaint on the original posting
was made by Paul Heckbert, the author of the article in question?

Kelly Booth
ACM SIGGRAPH Chair