Five years of comp.compilers

This month marks the the beginning of the sixth year of comp.compilers.
The first message to mod.compilers, its original name, went out January 3,
1986, as the compilers mailing list turned into a moderated usenet group.


In the first five years, there were 1794 messages consisting of a total of
101,000 lines (including headers) or 4.1 megabytes. Message volume has
increased considerably in the past year: there were over 100 messages in
each of four months of 1990, while the most active month before that was
64 messages in November 1989. In 1990, there were 853 messages consisting
of a total of 55,000 lines or 2.2 megabytes. At this point I still
publish pretty much all messages except those that seem inappropriate to
the compilers topic. If volume continues to increase I may have to become
more selective.


I have been wondering if there is interest in printed volumes of
comp.compilers for personal or institutional libraries, since in my
admittedly biased opinion its technical content is on the same order as
the ACM unrefereed SIG publications. My rough estimate is that printed in
8-point type, two-up, i.e. small but legible, 1990 would be about a 500
page book, which in small quantities would cost about $50 to produce. A
combined volume for 1986-89 would be about the same size and price. I'd
throw in a table of contents, a permuted index, and for the 1990 volume, a
keyword index. (Anyone who thinks $50 is too much is welcome to FTP the
archives and print them, as comp.compilers is not copyrighted.) Please
let me know if you'd be interested in copies of a printed volume.


Regards,
John Levine, comp.compilers moderator
johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us or {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl


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