From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from mail1-relais-roc.national.inria.fr (mail1-relais-roc.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.82]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5AB2FBBC4 for ; Mon, 2 Mar 2009 17:21:41 +0100 (CET) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AkAEAPCWq0mD1+WRgWdsb2JhbACUcAEBFiKzZIRtiEyEGgY X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.38,289,1233529200"; d="scan'208";a="24937425" Received: from alumnus.caltech.edu ([131.215.229.145]) by mail1-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr with ESMTP/TLS/DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA; 02 Mar 2009 17:21:40 +0100 Received: from alumnus.caltech.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by alumnus.caltech.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id n22GL5Ot020571 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Mon, 2 Mar 2009 08:21:06 -0800 (PST) Received: (from txr@localhost) by alumnus.caltech.edu (8.13.6/8.12.3/Submit) id n22GL4Pr020568; Mon, 2 Mar 2009 08:21:04 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 08:21:04 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <200903021621.n22GL4Pr020568@alumnus.caltech.edu> From: Tim Rentsch To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] The new OCaml book (Objective Caml Programming Language by Tim Rentsch) Reply-To: txr@alumni.caltech.edu X--MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X--MailScanner-ID: n22GL5Ot020571 X--MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-From: txr@alumnus.caltech.edu X-Spam: no; 0.00; ocaml:01 ocaml:01 rewriting:01 co-author:01 co-author:01 alum:98 2007.:98 2007,:98 suspended:98 preface:98 2007,:98 wrote:01 wrote:01 caml-list:01 caml-list:01 Caml-list readers, I've now had an opportunity to catch up on the caml-list emails over the last month or so, and review those relating to my book "The Objective Caml Programming Language." I see there's been a lot a speculation about what happened. To help clear things up, I've written a more detailed version of the history between Jason and myself, and our working together, and some related items that have happened since then. I may also reply later to specific emails on an individual basis, but for right now it seems best to send out just the history, and let the facts speak for themselves. ================ I first met Jason Hickey in January 2004. Jason was teaching a class I was interested in; I introduced myself as a Caltech alum and asked if it would be okay if I sat in on his class. One of the course materials was Jason's Introduction to OCaml course notes, which I expect many or most of you have seen. A little bit later that year -- I think it was March, but it could have been February or possibly April -- I approached Jason and asked if he was interested in turning the course notes into a book and would he like my help with the publishing process. He said yes to both questions, and we started working together soon after that, continuing until early January 2007. Originally I was expecting to do some light (sentence level) editing, various mundane tasks related to finding a publisher, working with their production people, etc., and perhaps have a few discussions about organization of later chapters in the book. Over time that changed significantly, going on to include: developing outlines, keeping manuscript to-do lists, discussions about reorganization, original writing, paragraph-level editing, discussions about appropriate coding style, researching some of the more obscure corners of OCaml, paragraph- and section-level rewriting, developing exercises, writing answers to exercises, writing example OCaml code, and numerous small tasks related to text preparation. Between March 2004 and January 2007 I did all of these things as part of working with Jason to get a manuscript ready; I edited, wrote, or re-wrote, every part of the text, in most cases not once but several times. In the second half of 2006 Jason and I talked about publishers and we set out to find a suitable publisher. I know we discussed several, maybe four or five, but the only ones I definitely remember talking to were Springer and Cambridge University Press. I did most of the contact phoning/emailing with the Springer people, and Jason did most of the contact with the CUP people (of course Jason and I usually would send or forward copies of these emails to each other). In both sets of conversations I was identified as a co-author. In about mid-January 2007, as part of our trying to sign a publishing agreement with CUP, it became clear that there was a misunderstanding about what we thought had been communicated between us about what our internal arrangement would be (the "we/us" here being Jason and myself); although we had talked about what our arrangement would be a couple of times over the years, we'd never decided on any specific arrangement, not even informally. At that point we suspended working on the manuscript while we tried to find a way to reach a mutually acceptable agreement. Those negotiations continued for some time, as I recall about eight or ten weeks, but ultimately were not successful. After that, Jason decided to pursue an independent arrangement with Cambridge University Press on his own. Subsequently I decided to proceed with a book based on our unpublished joint work, or I might say starting with, because there was still a lot to be done before TOCPL was ready to be published. Jason was contacted by mail to ask about arrangements for him to receive half of any royalty payments, which he's entitled to since TOCPL is based on a joint work by the two of us. Jason wrote back and said he did not wish to be financially involved with my book. He also declined to be named as a co-author. He did ask for an acknowledgment, which is given right at the end of the Preface in TOCPL. Since our working together stopped in January 2007, I haven't looked at any writing on OCaml that Jason has done since then, including the online document that I have now seen referenced and is supposed to be under submission to Cambridge University Press.