[TUHS] Re: Anyone ever heard of teaching a case study of Initial Unix?

[Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu>]

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> Peter J Denning in 2008 wrote about reforming CACM in 1982/83. [ extract
at end ]
>  <https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/dja-vu-all-over-again/>

That "accomplishment" drove me away from the ACM. I hope the following
explanation does not set off yet another long tangential discussion.

The CACM had been the prime benefit of ACM membership. It carried generally
accessible technical content across the whole spectrum of computing. The
"Journal for all Members" (JAM) reform resulted in such content being
thinly spread over several journals. To get the perspective that CACM had
offered, one would have had to subscribe to and winnow a mountain of
specialst literature--assuming the editors of these journals would accept
some ACM-style articles.

I had been an active member of ACM, having serving as associate editor of
three journals, member of the publications planning committee, national
lecturer, and Turing-Award chairman. When the JAM reform cut off my window
into the field at large, I quit the whole organization.

With the advent of WWW, the ACM Digital Library overcame the need to
subscribe to multiple journals for wide coverage. Fortunately I had
institutional acess to that. I rejoined ACM only after its decision to
allow free access to all 20th century content in the DL. This
public-spirited action more than atoned for the damage of the JAM reform
and warranted my support.

I have been happy to find that the current CACM carries one important
technical article in each issue and a couple of interesting columnists
among the generally insipid JAM content. And I am pleased by the news that
ACM will soon also give open access to most 21st-century content.

Doug

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