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 mail4-relais-sop.national.inria.fr (mail4-relais-sop.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.105]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id F24DBBBC4 for ; Wed, 4 Mar 2009 07:59:50 +0100 (CET) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: ArIDAPu1rUmD1+WRgWdsb2JhbACVBwEBFiKxOIcriEyECAY X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.38,299,1233529200"; d="scan'208";a="36057529" Received: from alumnus.caltech.edu ([131.215.229.145]) by mail4-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr with ESMTP/TLS/DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA; 04 Mar 2009 07:59:49 +0100 Received: from alumnus.caltech.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by alumnus.caltech.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id n246xDsH004430 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Tue, 3 Mar 2009 22:59:13 -0800 (PST) Received: (from txr@localhost) by alumnus.caltech.edu (8.13.6/8.12.3/Submit) id n246xCY7004427; Tue, 3 Mar 2009 22:59:12 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 22:59:12 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <200903040659.n246xCY7004427@alumnus.caltech.edu> From: Tim Rentsch To: deliverable@gmail.com Cc: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr In-reply-to: (message from Alexy Khrabrov on Mon, 2 Mar 2009 13:06:08 -0500) Subject: Re: [Caml-list] The new OCaml book (Objective Caml Programming Language by Tim Rentsch) Reply-To: txr@alumni.caltech.edu References: <200903021621.n22GL4Pr020568@alumnus.caltech.edu> X--MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X--MailScanner-ID: n246xDsH004430 X--MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-From: txr@alumnus.caltech.edu X-Spam: no; 0.00; ocaml:01 ocaml:01 intentional:01 co-author:01 withdrawn:98 caml-list:01 chapters:02 caml:02 suggesting:02 objective:02 motivation:02 functional:02 suggestion:03 programming:03 programming:03 Alexy -- thank you for the reply, I appreciate hearing your thoughts on the situation. Before you completely make up your mind I would like to offer some other perspectives to consider. It's a given that Jason had more OCaml background and experience than I did, especially at the beginning of our working together, and also that his original course notes gave us a good start. But there was still a lot of writing work to do, even just for topics already covered, before the earlier material would make it up to the level of being book-ready. And it isn't like Jason would work in some sections and I would work in others. We both worked in every part of the new manuscript, and that work was substantial; I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that each of us spent more time working on the joint manuscript than was spent altogether previously. Because of the nature of our collaboration, it's harder to see the value of my contribution in earlier chapters, but I believe that value is there and that it's significant. That might be hard to see comparing my book and Jason's current manuscript; has anyone considered comparing our joint manuscript against the original course notes? Let me be clear that I'm not suggesting any intentional impropriety on Jason's part. However, it's hard not to be unconsciously influenced by past memories during subsequent writing. If Jason's current manuscript inadvertently makes use of value I brought to the joint manuscript, what should be done about that? As to what should be done considering the similarities between my book and Jason's manuscript, I was surprised by your suggestion that my book be withdrawn. Legally, the manuscript Jason and I worked on is viewed as a joint work and we are equal co-owners, but even ignoring that, I don't think what I've done is inappropriate. I'm confident that I'm responsible for more than half the value of TOCPL. I was willing for Jason to be listed as co-author. I've tried to make arrangements to pay Jason the royalties that I think he's entitled to. Furthermore I wouldn't have done the book if I thought it didn't have unique value of its own to offer; part of my motivation is a sincere desire to contribute to a wider awareness of the benefits of ML-style functional programming. I see that there are other messages in this thread so let me stop here and continue on to the other messages. Tim