At the Software Development conference back in March, I had the opportunity to meet Herb Sutter, author of the popular "Guru of the Week" series on the comp.lang.c++.moderated newsgroup. He also wrote the book Exceptional C++, which we reviewed in the February 2000 issue of CUJ. When I met Herb, he had recently been named Editor-in-Chief of C++ Report magazine, a publication that specialized in sophisticated, sometimes esoteric C++ articles, and a hangout for some of the smartest gurus of C++. Name any of the top C++ authors and they have probably appeared in the Report at one time or another. I admit I felt a little nervous meeting the head of such a prestigious publication, but I found Herb to be a quite likable fellow. Of course it didn't hurt that he shared my love for a good microbrew. Herb also struck me as a real 24X7 kind of guy. If anyone could turn the Report into a real powerhouse magazine, Herb seemed to be the one to do it.
What neither Herb nor I knew at the time was that in a few short months the Report would be no more. For reasons not entirely clear to me, its publisher pulled the plug. Now I must bring an awkward truth out on the table: although the demise of C++ Report is a loss for C++ programmers, it is something of a windfall for CUJ. And a very big part of that windfall is Herb Sutter. He is now a member of CUJ's editorial board, and will also soon join us as a columnist. Welcome aboard, Herb!
In his tenure as editor of C++ Report, Herb had lined up an impressive stable of columnists, some of the top experts in C++. Naturally, when he learned his magazine was folding, he wanted to find a home for these fine writers, so he turned to CUJ. So I am happy to report that in coming months we will be adding three other former C++ Report writers as bimonthly columnists: Matt Austern, Steve Dewhurst, and Andrew Koenig.
I wish I could accomodate the rest of the C++ Report columnists. Unfortunately, I am constrained by a maximum page count, an inviolable limit set by folks higher on the food chain (like my boss). However, we did offer the remainder of the C++ Report columnists the opportunity to publish on the CUJ web site. Whatever else is good or bad about the web, it does not impose the draconian space limitations of print. Most of the columnists accepted our offer, so if you were an avid reader of the Report, you can now find your favorite authors either in CUJ or on our web site. See our "C++ Experts Forum" at www.cuj.com/experts/.
Finally, with this massive influx of C++ expertise, it might seem we are in danger of forgetting the ‘C' in C/C++ Users Journal. To allay those fears, I want to introduce our new C columnist, Randy Meyers. (Randy does not come to us by way of C++ Report, but he has considerable expertise in C++ as well.) As current chairman of the ANSI C committee, Randy is in an excellent position to tell us of the latest changes to Standard C, of which there have been many. See his first installment on p. 49.
Well, I think that's all the changes I will have to report for a while. Maybe next month I can get back to my usual ponderings on the "C Family" of languages, where quite a bit is going on. As I write this, Microsoft has just announced their new C# language and .NET platform. Apparently both are still in the vapor phase, but that hasn't kept anyone from forming an opinion. What's more, I just found out that one of my columnists, Bobby Schmidt, has been deeply involved in the C# project at Microsoft but was under NDA until very recently. Now that he's free to talk about it, I may have to play devil's advocate to his enthusiasm. Hey, Bobby: what makes C# more than a fancy knockoff of Java?
Life has sure gotten interesting around here. Stick around for the fun.
Marc Briand
Editor-in-Chief
