The Poll...
It has been interesting glancing at your comments on the Readers
Poll cards about what you would like to see in the magazine, even
though I have not had a chance to look at them fully. What comes out
clearly is how subjective many people are, with the expected
comments of 'less ST coverage' or 'more ST coverage' and 'less games
listings' or 'more games listings'. A number of readers went the
whole way and asked us to drop all ST or 8 bit coverage depending on
their own systems. What we were really looking for were suggestions
for specific articles and programs and there were indeed plenty of
those, but the 'more /less' comments proved how very difficult it is
to be objective. Everyone is coloured to some extent by their own
likes and dislikes, even if they are producing work for others, and
it brought home just what a difficult job it is to review software
and get together a balance of articles in a magazine to suit all
tastes. I have in past issues included several programs that did not
particularly interest me personally, although judging from the votes
in the readers poll, getting a wide cross-section of articles and
programs is the right thing to do and I hope that we have been
objective in the past and can remain so in the future.
One comment made by several readers was that we
should drop all the long program listings because 'nobody bothers to
type them in' but I can assure you that they do! Aside from the fact
that we are the only magazine in this country willing to print
really long listings, many readers find them instructing and even a
challenge. Often I have tried to help someone who is stuck with a
listing and when I can't suggest any more ways round a problem, I
may suggest that the reader buys a copy of the appropriate issue
disk with the program ready to run. Most readers decline this, not
because of the cost, but because they want to get it right
themselves. Typing a long listing correctly and getting it to run as
intended is a challenge in itself, almost as challenging as writing
your own programs, and for many people it is satisfaction enough.
Additionally, typing in and debugging program listings is the best
way to learn how to program yourself, that's how I learned and so
did many others. So, the long program listings will continue as long
as you send them in!
Next issue I will bring you a run-down of the
comments in the survey, and the results of the Readers Poll, so that
anyone itching to write an article for us might be inspired with
ideas. In the meantime I will leave you with one comment on the
survey form which really had me puzzled. 'No 8-bit items and less
ST'!!! Now that would be really easy!
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