ephraim@Think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac) (10/12/89)
I was leafing through the October MacTutor last night, and was
amazed once more at the technical depths to which (some of)
their writers sink. In an article on writing INITs, J. Peter
Hoddie cites TN212's warning against tail patches, then goes
on to say:
Unfortunately, any trap patch[es] written using the C
function technique described here are effectively
tail patches. However, I have yet to find a case
where this actually causes a problem. Furthermore,
in many cases it is actually impossible to obtain the
desired result without writing a tail patch. It seems
unlikely that Apple will declare war on tail patches
in future Systems, as there are already tons of tail
patches out there. However, it is possible that this
could cause problems in some rare instances. Unfortunately,
the alternative is to write lots more assembly code,
and that isn't a terribly appealing option.
In other words, it's OK to break the rules if you're lazy and don't
care much.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com ThinkingCorp@applelink.apple.com
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142
One of the flaws in the anarchic bopper society wasearleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton) (10/13/89)
In article <30951@news.Think.COM> ephraim@Think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac) writes: >I was leafing through the October MacTutor last night, and was >amazed once more at the technical depths to which (some of) >their writers sink. One way to improve the quality of articles in MacTutor is for people who know what they are doing to submit high quality articles themselves. Anyone can submit an article to MacTutor. Just call up the number in the back of the magazine and ask them how to do it. If they can use your article, you get your name in print and a free copy of the magazine with a check for a few hundred dollars stuck in it. If you don't need the money, look at as a public service. You can reduce the number of bad articles by submitting good articles yourself. Earle R. Horton
mikem@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Mike Morton) (10/13/89)
earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton) writes: >Anyone can submit an article to MacTutor. Not only can anyone submit an article to MacTutor, but anyone can get one printed ;-). Seriously, Dave Smith told me a while back that in four years of operation, he had rejected only one article, and he believed that he would eventually publish everything else, although some of it would take a long time. MacTutor needs a technical review board, perhaps? Given that many articles languish for months before being printed, there seems to be plenty of time for such a process. And while they're at it, they might want to start using a spelling checker or even using a human proofreader. -- Mike Morton // P.O. Box 11378, Honolulu, HI 96828, (808) 676-6966 HST Internet: mikem@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (anagrams): Mr. Machine Tool; Ethical Mormon; Chosen Immortal; etc.
earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton) (10/13/89)
In article <5097@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> mikem@uhccux.UUCP (Mike Morton) writes: >earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton) writes: >>Anyone can submit an article to MacTutor. ... >Seriously, Dave Smith told me a while back that in four years of >operation, he had rejected only one article, and he believed that >he would eventually publish everything else, although some of it would >take a long time. > >MacTutor needs a technical review board, perhaps? Given that many >articles languish for months before being printed, there seems to be >plenty of time for such a process. And while they're at it, they >might want to start using a spelling checker or even using a human >proofreader. This is all true, I am sure. My point is that one way to get this sort of thing started is for people who are really good to submit more articles and source code. It does not make sense to have a rigorous technical review board unless you have a glut of articles, and are forced to reject some because of over-supply. Anyone who is in a position to complain about the quality of articles in MacTutor is probably both (a) benefiting from the magazine in some way, and (b) good enough to write an article which is better than the object of the complaint. If you make your living programming the Macintosh, and consider what you do to be meaningful in any kind of larger social context, then consider it your duty to support MacTutor with good articles. It is probably going against some law of economics to try to drive out bad merchandise by diluting it with good, but it is certainly worth a try. Earle R. Horton
erics@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Eric Schlegel) (10/14/89)
In article <5097@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> mikem@uhccux.UUCP (Mike Morton) writes: >Not only can anyone submit an article to MacTutor, but anyone can get >one printed ;-). > >Seriously, Dave Smith told me a while back that in four years of >operation, he had rejected only one article, and he believed that >he would eventually publish everything else, although some of it would >take a long time. > >Given that many articles languish for months before being printed... Not meaning to discourage anyone from writing articles for MacTutor, but my experience is... I sent an article to MacTutor in Dec. 1987. I called them in August 1988 and again in the spring of 1989 to check on its status. They said they would look for a slot to fit it in. It still hasn't been published. I'm still hoping... but I'm not going take time writing any more articles in the near future. Eric Schlegel eric.schlegel@dartmouth.edu
omh@brunix (Owen M. Hartnett) (10/14/89)
MacTutor should get its editorial act together, frankly. The previous poster's situation is quite common, I believe. (i.e. submitting an article getting a response that indicates subsequent publication, then having the article languish in some editorial queue for *literally* years.) If they don't want it, they should refuse it. If they do want it, they should buy it - when they accept it. This business about "every article will be published in time" sounds an awful lot like the six chimps who will ultimately type out Shakespeare. Pure crap. Owen Hartnett omh@cs.brown.edu.CSNET Brown University Computer Science omh@cs.brown.edu uunet!brunix!omh "Don't wait up for me tonight because I won't be home for a month."