Re: IUCR-COMPCOMM: Jan 2002 edition of the IUCr Computing

["I. David Brown" <idbrown@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca>]

Dear Lachlan,

> I must admit copying from the experience of the Commission on Powder
> Diffraction on their newsletter. Just having a "newsletter" without
> technical articles did not generate much enthusiasm for the CPD
> newsletter. But having a variety of "soft" technical articles -
> opinions, etc did. (and greatly increased the size of this printed
> newsletter - I must admit I tend not to print PDF files and read on the
> screen - but I could be in a minority here.  I assumed most people might
> only want to print out articles that particularly interested them from
> general browsing on the screen.)

I have no problem with the articles which I am sure are valuabe and
interesting, but to call a large collection of relatively technical
articles a 'newsletter' (even if the articles are 'soft') is a misleading
use of the word 'newsletter' since they are hardly news and the format is
certainly not that of a letter.  I expected a newsletter to be short and
chatty.  I don't think the cpd newsletter is a good model for us.

I prefer to read from hard copy, particularly for anything more than a
couple of pages.  It is too early to know whether we will all abandon the
printed word in favour of screens, so at least for the time being we need
to cater for both the hardcopy reader and the screen reader.

The html version of your 'newsletter' did have an index so that I could
select the article of interest, but I don't know how I can easily print
out that article without printing all 106 pages.  Certainly the .pdf
version did not offer me that capability.  When I downloaded it, the
computer tried to print the whole thing.  Since it failed I am unable even
to browse through the printed copy.  I suppose I can 'select' the text of
an article in .html and print just the selected text, but this is a little
awkward.  The best arrangement would be to have each article as a separate
file.

> One possible way for any future editions (the aim would be for one
> every 6 months - though it is assumed there would be less technical
> articles) could be to use the example of CPD Newsletter
> No. 20, (May-August) Summer 1998.
>
>   http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/comm/cpd/Newsletters/no20summer1998/
>
> (Cut into small HTML files).  Though many people are fans of PDF
> files.  Trying to do both a high quality PDF and a high quality HTML
> version probably adds 50 to 70% more time and effort in cut and
> paste (based on the CPD newsletters)

Each article could be put up as it is received and its title added to the
accumulated index.  I don't have a problem with having only a .pdf version
(or an .html version, either will do).  Both are easy enough to view, and
to print, provided one can print each article separately. Downloading 5 MB
can also take a lot of time, even on highspeed connections, and if I am
only interested in one of article, I don't want to have the overhead of
downloading and printing a lot of material that I don't need.  It wastes
paper and ties up my printer (and computer since I cannot do anything with
it while it is preparing 5 MB of .pdf for the printer).

I would recommend that you run the Commission articles in series under
such headings as 'software', 'hardware' etc. with an index to each series.
Since the articles don't date quickly, the date of acquisition is not
important, so it is unnecessary to worry about which edition of the
'newsletter' the article is to be found in.  I notice that the cpd
newsletters are all themed, but this means an article on a particular
theme that misses the deadline for its particular newsletter cannot be
published until a later newsletter with an appropriate theme comes along.
An open ended series of articles could be added to whenever a new article
is received.

> The aim of having the variety of articles in this above type of
> newsletter is that - overall - there should be at least one article of
> direct interest to the average reader.

That is just the problem.  Perhaps only one article is of interest, but
one has to drag the whole of the remaining 5 MB (106 pages) along with it.
Big frustration with the result is that the article does not get read.

> Plus try and get the "soft"
> crystallographic computing information out of people's brains
> and into print.  A newsletter format can be a friendly way to make
> this happen.

I would strongly disagree with the last statement - I find the newsletter
is anything but a friendly format for this.  You can do much better by
running an open ended series of articles each with its own file.  I may
indeed be able to find an article of interest in the latest newsletter,
but it would be much easier for me to find it if it were not buried deep
inside a newsletter where I have difficulty in finding it and even more
difficulty in printing it.

In short, I think both the name and the format 'newsletter' is
inappropriate and misleading.  There is a better format available for
these articles, and newsletters should be just that, letters that
contain news.

				David


*****************************************************
Dr.I.David Brown,  Professor Emeritus
Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research,
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Tel: 1-(905)-525-9140 ext 24710
Fax: 1-(905)-521-2773
idbrown@mcmaster.ca
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