Overload 20 Editorial - Introductions
Hi folks. I’ve been appointed editor for the next three issues. If this role suits me, and more importantly suits you, then I hope I’ll be here for some time.
Traditionally, our Editor has been one of our principle contributors. Inevitably, this changes the editing job from a responsible constructive hobby into a part-time chore. My stint as Editor may tease out some authoring tendencies in me, but I don’t intend to let us to slip back into that old state.
Editorial Board
To spread the workload Overload is now ‘managed’ by an editorial team, consisting of an Editor and three Readers. Our Readers have quite varied technical backgrounds and interests. Their role is to review all submissions for technical accuracy, and correct use of English.
Ray Hall - Did an Artificial Intelligence degree at Imperial College with a thesis on ‘OO Development’. He has experience in writing and running a magazine, and will be concentrating on OO development and techniques.
Ian Bruntlett - Has been mostly working with C for the past few years and is now brushing up his C++ and OO skills.
Einar Nilsen-Nygaard - An Electronic Engineer by degree. Currently working on network management software. Has a few years of C++ experience and is currently moving into distributed OO technology.
Me? I’ve been programming in C++ for four years working on games, terminal emulation, and voice mail servers.
Contributions
There are approximately 500 Overload subscribers, and yet only half a dozen are regular contributors. We need to encourage more of you to make an effort. It’s rewarding to share your ideas with your peers, and you only really understand something if you can effectively communicate it to somebody else. Have you noticed that when you approach a colleague to explain an evil problem how you work out the answer before they’ve said anything. Your spiel of frustration is interrupted by the solution. That’s because you haven’t truly understood the problem until you needed to communicate it. So, communicate and learn.
Too Much C++
A problem I perceive, but with which many others contend, is that there’s too much C++ in Overload. I expect you may be sucking air through your teeth at this point. I believe that Overload should be broadened to include more general OO articles. There are two reasons for this:
1. There is not enough hard core technical C++ material being generated.
2. The audience isn’t C++ technicians but OO programmers who happen to be crafting their work in C++.
I’d rather have a magazine that promoted pragmatic ideas about problem solving in an OO fashion than one that concentrated on the squiggles of the C++ Standard. I find advanced articles on the dim and dark corners of C++ to be of limited use. It merely points out to me that the brightest minds find something hard to understand. So, the feature is unlikely to be implemented, or implemented correctly. My code is unlikely to be portable, and I might not fully understand all the subtleties of the problem. During the past four years I’ve been bitten by various compilers over multiple inheritance, templates, and exceptions. These articles are like anti-idioms or anti-patterns. ‘Ah, best avoid X, Y and Z for a couple of years whilst it matures.’
I’d like to encourage more articles on topics which address applying object oriented design and C++ implementation to common problems. Basically, pattern designs, and pattern implementations.
As ever, this magazine is for the membership, by the membership. We need your contributions and feedback.
Want to contribute? Can’t find a topic? - Mail me.
Need a solution? Explain the problem! - Mail me.
John Merrells
June 1997