Mailing List Archive

Strange sunspot activity caused Tom Christiansen <tchrist@mox.perl.com> to writ
e:
| I've been asked why we don't have a quarterly newsletter for Perl.
| Anybody think it's a good idea?

Sure, it's a good idea. Who's going to handle the logistics though, and
what are we going to do with it? Is it just going to be something posted
to clpm/clpa every quarter, or are we going to get it printed, or what? Is
it time to start talking about the "Perl Institute" again?

| "Unix is simple, but it takes a genius to understand the simplicity."
| --Dennis Ritchie

"UNIX is great, unless you have to learn it."
-from Bradley C Spatz, bcs@cis.ufl.edu

>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Christiansen <tchrist@mox.perl.com> writes:

Tom> I've been asked why we don't have a quarterly newsletter for Perl.
Tom> Anybody think it's a good idea?

Only for people that don't have access to Usenet.

Name: Randal L. Schwartz / Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095
Keywords: Perl training, UNIX[tm] consulting, video production, skiing, flying
Email: <merlyn@stonehenge.com> Snail: (Call) PGP-Key: (finger merlyn@ora.com)
Web: <A HREF="http://www.teleport.com/~merlyn/">My Home Page!</A>
Quote: "I'm telling you, if I could have five lines in my .sig, I would!" -- me

Brainstorm time: send ideas away, s'il vous plaît (et même si non :-).

--tom

Oh, I don't think so. In fact, yours has been the only negative response
balanced against the various positive responses.

You see, Randal, it's like this: few amongst us, save of course for the
likes of thee and me :-), can hope to begin to process the amazing amount
of perl information that comes out over the net each and every day. *THE*
most important aspect of the net in the future -- and perhaps already
today - will be new information services that produce distillations of the
dreck, the gems of in the mountains of coal.

I do agree that there probably wouldn't be as man paper subscribers as
electronic ones, but I'm sure there would be a few, perhaps for archival
if nothing else.

Here are questions:

0) What's it called?
1) Who's the Editor(s)?
2) How often does it get published and in which fora?
3) How do we handle production (electronic and paper) logisitics?
4) What regular features would be be?
5) Do we want to pursue external sponsorship?

I believe some some fo you out there have some experience in this.
Is/Wasn't there a C++ newsletter?

Here's a eureka for you: I suspect that I stand a good chance in having
Usenix/SAGE co-sponsor this thing, which is an interesting notion.

This is my last day for constant email access: I do the two-week corporate
world tour through Atlanta, New Jersey, and Nice+Paris (France) starting
tomorrow. I'm happy to get this rolling today.

Brainstorm time: send ideas away, s'il vous plaît (et même si non :-).

--tom

0: Call it "On the Half Shell"
1: Ideally the editor should be someone who:
a. Is familiar with perl's history and "culture".
b. Has time.
Does this person really exist?
2: It should probably be quarterly.
3: You might want to talk to the GNU
folks about logistics. They do a paper/electronic newsletter.
4: Regular features should probably include:

A "what's new" like section that would highlight current
development and ideas but not really focus on anything.

A focus on ONE new feature or package.

Some kind of philosophical column that talks about an aspect
of the language and why it should or shouldn't be the way it
is (like a discussion of why modules and DynaLoader are
important for future development).

5: External sponsorship is a three-edged sword. Let me talk to my
company about this before I answer that question ;-)

-AJS

--
--- Aaron Sherman / "B4 f w+ c kv s+(--)v r p" ---
Phone: (617)321-5100 "I do not speak for THEM."
Email: ajs@ajs.com WWW: http://ajs.com/~ajs/

> From: Aaron Sherman <ajs@vorlon.ajs.com>
>
> 3: You might want to talk to the GNU
> folks about logistics. They do a paper/electronic newsletter.

It would, of course, be written in POD :-)

Tim.

This is paraphrased from my correspondence with Tom:

I think the newsletter is a great idea. They're a lot of fun, and
it'll be a great complement to usenet and the various mailing lists.
The preponderance of Perl info ENLARGES the niche for a high-quality
publication that packages the information well.

I've managed all the phases of newsletters: writing, graphic design,
editing, negotiating with printers, getting bulk mail permits, and
handling libel accusations.

We wouldn't have any trouble filling a 16 or 32 page newsletter with...

o Wizardry columns
o A "Perl puzzler" feature
o The "philosophy" of Perl
o Tutorials
o Editorials
o Advocacy (e.g. Perl vs. Python/C++/etc.

and even

o humor
o cartoons
o advertisements

...every four months.

85% (that's a real statistic) of all magazines fail because they
"shoot their wad" in the first year, and are left with nothing to talk
about after that. But the Perl community is generating stuff at such
an alarming rate that I'm sure there won't be any shortage of
material. Ever.

I've got the infrastructure in place right now, including a
corporate bank account. In theory we could advertise next
week after I change its name to...what?

The Perl Quarterly?
Perl on Paper?
The Perl Papyrus?

Jon

> 5: External sponsorship is a three-edged sword. Let me talk to my
> company about this before I answer that question ;-)

I know. I still think some SAGE involvement might be nice.
I'll see whether I can spark any interest.

--tom

: In theory we could advertise next week after I change its name to...what?
:
: The Perl Quarterly?
: Perl on Paper?
: The Perl Papyrus?

I'd been reserving the name "Cultured Perl" for a book on Software
Engineering in Perl, but you can use that name if you like. I suspect
a newsletter would contribute more to Perl culture than a book would
anyway.

Larry

Strange sunspot activity caused Larry Wall <lwall@scalpel.netlabs.com> to write
:
| : The Perl Quarterly?
| : Perl on Paper?
| : The Perl Papyrus?
|
| I'd been reserving the name "Cultured Perl" for a book on Software

The Mother of All Perl Newsletter ;-)

-spp

On Mon, 09 Oct 1995 14:33:31 EDT, Jon Orwant wrote:
>
>I've got the infrastructure in place right now, including a
>corporate bank account. In theory we could advertise next
>week after I change its name to...what?
>
>The Perl Quarterly?
>Perl on Paper?
>The Perl Papyrus?
>
>Jon
>

I agree a newsletter has a place in the perl community. I would
suggest 'The Perl Percolator' for a name.

- Sarathy.
gsar@engin.umich.edu

According to Jon Orwant:
> The Perl Quarterly?
> Perl on Paper?
> The Perl Papyrus?

Perl of Great Value?
The Perloined Newsletter?
Can't Grep This?
--
Chip Salzenberg, aka <chs@nando.net>
"Hey, it's the Miss Alternate Universe Pageant!"
-- Crow T. Robot, MST3K: "Stranded In Space"

> I know. I still think some SAGE involvement might be nice.
> I'll see whether I can spark any interest.

Finding venture capital won't be a problem. But I question whether
sponsorship is necessary. We only need serious external support if
we're talking about a Big Budget production. That means a lot of
people working full-time. (I'm confident about the newsletter, but
I'm not about to quit my day job.)

I've spoken to two of the original WiReD investors, and a friend of
mine who's a staff writer. They all said we should go for it. And a
while back I met the editor/publisher of WiReD on NPR (we appeared on
a panel together) and we talked after the show about whether it was
getting harder or easier to start up technical magazines.

It's harder now to launch magazines, but easier to launch low-budget
newsletters, since both publicity and content are cheaper now. It's
the art department and the glossy covers that cost the big bucks.
I think we should avoid that route.

If we need money, we should sell ad space.

Who among you is interested in *managerial* roles (i.e. requiring no
Perl knowledge)? These range from tedious (compiling subscriber
lists) to creative (graphic design, artwork) to legal (S-corporation,
self-proprietorship, or a full-blown corporation?)

There's no shortage of content-providers among you, but before we can
start thinking about who writes what, we need to hammer out the
managerial details.

Jon

> From: orwant@media.mit.edu (Jon Orwant)
>
> This is paraphrased from my correspondence with Tom:
>
> I think the newsletter is a great idea. They're a lot of fun, and
> it'll be a great complement to usenet and the various mailing lists.
> The preponderance of Perl info ENLARGES the niche for a high-quality
> publication that packages the information well.
>
> I've managed all the phases of newsletters: writing, graphic design,
> editing, negotiating with printers, getting bulk mail permits, and
> handling libel accusations.

Excellent idea, go for it.

Paul

Who among you is interested in *managerial* roles (i.e. requiring no
Perl knowledge)?

however, i think a better quality newletter would be produced if these
people *did* know perl reasonably well.

.mrg.

> however, i think a better quality newletter would be produced if these
> people *did* know perl reasonably well.

Agreed. I just don't want volunteers to have any illusions about their
duties, since a lot of the work to be done is non- (or even anti-) cerebral.

(Of course, you don't want the fellow handling paste-up thinking that
tr[A-Z][a-z] can handle linebreaks on the hyphens.)

Jon