Dear Prof. Treutwein,
Unfortunately, all the Oberon series of books were put out of print
because they no longer sells. So, it was done for economic reason more
than anything else. Interests in the Oberon project are no longer as
strong as they were once, so, we felt that it was time to retire the
books from the active list.
I do agree with you assessment that the project was of a monumental
importance to computer science. For this reason, I am looking to have
those books scanned and made available in their entireties on the ACM
website. This way, future programmers who are looking for materials on
Oberon can simply take a look or download the materials in which they
are interested. I am not sure when we can have this affected as it does
involve some logistical issues from our side.
Best regards,
Jono Hardjowirogo
Publisher, ACM Press Books and Journals
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Deborah Cotton
> Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 12:16 PM
> To: 'bernhard{([at]})nowhere.xy> Cc: Jono Hardjowirogo; Deborah Cotton
> Subject: RE: The Oberon Series
>
> Hello Prof. Treutwein,
>
> Thanks for the compliment, but I'm forwarding this to Jono
> Hardjowirogo, ACM Press Books publisher, as this question
> is beyond my scope. I was not aware that ACM Press had
> discontinued the Oberon series, but perhaps he can give details
> regarding the decision or refer you to the proper authority in
> this case. Good luck.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Deborah
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bernhard{([at]})nowhere.xy> Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 3:50 AM
> To: cotton{([at]})nowhere.xy> Subject: The Oberon Series
>
> Dear Deborah Cotton,
>
> sorry to contact you again, but since you were very cooperative in
> my Copyright question about Reiser's Oberon System in April to June
> this year, I hope that you can point me out, whome I should contact
> with the following issue:
>
> AWL has finally shut down the whole Oberon series:
>
> [WiR92] N. Wirth and M. Reiser
> Programming in Oberon - Steps Beyond Pascal and Modula
> Addison-Wesley, 1992, ISBN 0-201-56543-9
>
> [Rei92] M. Reiser
> The Oberon System; User Guide and Programmer's Manual
> Addison-Wesley, 1992, ISBN 0-201-54422-9
>
> [WiG92] N. Wirth and J. Gutknecht
> Project Oberon - The Design of an Operating System and Compiler
> Addison-Wesley, 1992, ISBN 0-201-54428-8
>
> [WiR94] N. Wirth and M. Reiser
> Programmieren in Oberon - Das neue Pascal
> Addison-Wesley, 1994, ISBN 3-89319-657-9 -
> Translated into German by J. Templ.
>
> Shortly after Wirth's retirement in April this year. I don't know if
> this was done by AWL in arrangement with ACM, but I think this is
> abashing (don't know if this is the correct english word, I'm not a
> native speaker) since Wirth has done pioneering work, which was
> accomplished by several organizations (see the inlcuded selected list
> of honors, taken from: http://www.inf.ethz.ch/~wirth/):
>
>
> Selected Honours
>
> ACM, A. M. Turing Award (1984)
> IEEE Computer Society, Computer Pioneer Award (1988)
> IBM Europe Science and Technology Prize 1988 (1989)
> Member, Swiss Academy of Engineering, 1992
> Foreign Associate, US Academy of Engieering, 1994
> Orden Pour le merite, 1996.
> Honorary Doctorates:
> University of York, England, 1978
> Ecole Polytechnique Federale, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1978
> Laval University, Quebec, Canada, 1987
> Johannes Kepler Universitaet Linz, Austria, 1993
> University of Novosibirsk, Russia, 1996
> The Open University, England, 1997
> University of Pretoria, South Africa, 1998
>
>
> Now my question: Who is responsible at ACM for such a decision>
> (if the series was dropped by AWL in arrangement with ACM), or
> how can this step be taken back, if it is in the interest of
> ACM to keep this series.
>
> Thanks in advance for your advise
> --
> Bernhard Treutwein Tel. +49-89-5996-642, Fax -615
> Institut f. Med. Psychologie Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet
> bernhard{([at]})nowhere.xy> -------------------------------- ---------------------------
> C is its own virus
Received on Thu Sep 23 1999 - 22:20:20 UTC