Letters
Readers chime in on the format of the magazine and the new What's Hot department.
Letters to Visual Studio Magazine are welcome. Letters must include your name, address, and daytime phone number to be considered for publication. Letters might be edited for form, fit, and style. Please send them to Letters to the Editor, c/o Visual Studio Magazine, 2600 El Camino Real, Suite 300, San Mateo, CA 94403; fax them to 650-570-6307; or e-mail them to [email protected].
Present Format Works for Reader
As a long time subscriber (since the early Visual Basic Programmer's Journal days), I couldn't believe the reader's comments in Patrick Meader's Editor's Note, "Thinking Outside the VS Box" [VSM May 2007]. The reader, Paul Levoy, questioned why VSM doesn't let its authors write about third-party products in its how-to articles, while at the same time allowing them to cover non-Visual Studio products such as SQL Server and so on.
Patrick Meader's response to those comments sums up exactly why I subscribe to VSM, and why I have always subscribed to this magazine. In fact, I still have copies that date back to October 1997 with pictures of Jim Fawcette as president and publisher and Jeff Hadfield being announced as the new editor-in-chief. If I dug deeper, I could probably come up with some that date even earlier than that.
Anyway, you guys do a terrific job, so please stay with your present format. The developers that read your magazine do so because of that format. If you ask me, that reader needs to find a different magazine!
David N. Jenson
received by e-mail
What's Hot is Smokin'
I just wanted to take a moment to note how much I enjoy the new What's Hot department you've been running by Bill McCarthy in VSM the last couple months "Get Yer Hot Downloads," What's Hot, VSM March 2007 and "Spout Off With Latest Orcas CTP," What's Hot, VSM April 2007]. For example, Bill's item on domain-specific language tools was precisely the thing I'd been looking for. I'd heard some vague announcements about this technology a while back, but had had no success at actually learning much about it. Then voilà! Here's a short blurb on the subject and a URL to go check out the technology.
I hope that department continues to be a regular feature of the magazine. I especially enjoy the fact that Bill not only summarizes what's new from Microsoft in terms of current downloads for Visual Studio, but also provides a short commentary explaining why the downloads are significant. If anything, I'd like to see you expand this column to incorporate what's new from third-party companies, in addition to Microsoft's offerings.
Don't get me wrong: I enjoy the how-to articles, as well, but this column is a nice change-of-pace, and provides some nice context for the rest of the magazine. I'm just asking for more of a good thing. Keep up the good work.
Kelly Ruzzin
Highlands, New Jersey