Title: Editorial

In the five years or so in which I've been calling myself a professional software developer, I have written many thousands of words about many different aspects of software development. I have rarely if ever being in the slightest bit nervous about my writing being seen by a likely audience of thousands, and a possible audience of many more. I've written documentation for end users, and I've written far too many messages on newsgroups and mailing lists to be read by my fellow programmers. This is different, somehow: I'm writing for an audience of my peers, in hardcopy, and there is less of the throwaway feeling that accompanies writing online. I will write this, and then review it, and finally give up trying to make it perfect and accept that it will have to be "good enough."

There has been discussion, unsurprisingly mostly conducted in e-mail, about whether publishing online - exclusively - would be a good step forward for C Vu. If I believed that it was, I would not have taken the job as editor of this magazine. Printed material lacks the immediacy of online publishing, certainly, but it makes up for it with a feeling of deliberateness. It's also a lot easier to read on the train, or in my comfy chair. (Note to self: buy comfy chair.) Writing for publication seems to take more care than writing online, and we apply higher standards to printed material than we do to articles online. There are a limited number of places where C and C++ material of good quality can be found. We can consider newsgroups, but even on the moderated newsgroups, the signal-to-noise ratio is sometimes problematic. We can consider websites, but few of the C++ websites carry authoritative material. There are books, of course, and in their selection the ACCU book reviews and mailing lists can be a valuable aid. Books, however, have a lead times even longer than magazines, and require a great effort from authors who wish to produce a book of which they can be proud. Magazines fill a useful middle ground. By the application of a little more effort than required to post a message to a newsgroup, they generally lead to more valuable material, but by requiring less effort than is needed to publish a book they allow new authors to come forward and share their ideas with the rest of us. There are very few remaining high quality magazines covering C, C++ and associated tools, and C Vu (together with Overload) can play an important part.

Having established the case for the continued existence of the ACCU's print journals, it is appropriate to say that there is room for improvement. Discussion of whether some things that are currently printed in C Vu might appear online as well, or exclusively, are welcome. Changes are unlikely to happen overnight, but they will happen over time. C Vu needs to complement our online resources, and vice versa. Updates on the success of online initiatives such as the accu-mentored-developers project seem to me to be one example of how this can work well.

When taking over a role previously filled so skilfully as has been that of C Vu editor, there is always a temptation to try to imitate one's predecessor. I will try not to fall into the trap of believing that I can be the same as Francis; instead, I will try to achieve some of the same goals, in my own ways. As with all of C Vu, a primary goal is to promote professionalism in programming. Another goal is to present varied viewpoints; software moves on, and simply accepting the status quo doesn't keep us up to date. We need to keep challenging our beliefs, or be left behind.

To make C Vu as valuable to you, the readership, as possible, I will need to know what you want to read. Francis has had a number of years in which to get a feel for what makes good C Vu material, but I am a relative newcomer. Chances are that if a number of you want to know about a subject, we also have members who already know about it and would be able to share their knowledge. Write to me, tell me what would make C Vu better for you. Bribe me by including an article of your own if you want to be assured of good service.

This first edition of C Vu has been a learning experience for me. I would like to thank briefly those who have contributed articles, and also to acknowledge the amount of help I've received from Francis Glassborow in learning the ropes. With luck you'll find this C Vu as useful as ever.