Softpanorama Bulletin 1998; v.10. No.1 (0A0) -- Jan-March, 1998. Compiled by Nikolai Bezroukov

Published quarterly

Open Source Software Chronicle

Softpanorama bulletin is published quarterly and contains mainly links to sites on the Internet which are owned and operated by third parties. We are not responsible for the availability of  the content located on any such third-party sites.

Dmitry Gurtyak needs help

A talented Ukrainian programmer Dmitry Gurtyak, who in the past was an active contributor to the Softpanorama bulletin and several times participated in the Softpanorama seminar was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I believe he is now 26 years old (last time I saw him in 1992 when he was still a student at the Donetsk State University).

We appeal to the community of Russian-speaking programmers to contribute to his recovery fond. Even small sum of money can make the difference. If you were the user of one of his popular freeware utilities (for example, keyrus) just consider it as delayed registration fee. Here is the letter(in Russian, KOI codepage) from ukr.netnews with some additional details.

• The Orthodox File Manager(OFM) Paradigm by Nikolai Bezroukov (v.1.09)
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar  -- The groundbreaking paper by Pennsylvania programmer Eric Raymond. It describes how a company can create a profitable business by giving away the source code of its software.  This paper influence decision of Netscape to give away its browser.
• Tom Christiansen on the Freeing of Netscape.
• The Quality of Code Produced by OO Compilers by  Alexander Kogtenkov

Interview with professor Donald E. Knuth by Tom Mace, Amazon.com  -- About the third edition of vol. 1 of The Art of Computer Programming

Yet another link to News

Learning_Perl_on_Win32. -- Nikolai Bezroukov's review

Bruce Eckel "Thinking in Java" -- was published ! The book is also available as e-text. See Softpanorama Java Seminar -- Bruce Eckel 'Thinking in Java' Support Page for review and additional details.

FreeDOS Kernel -- A very good review from DDJ by Ray Dunkan

Linux Device Drivers By Alessandro Rubini O'Reilly/ 1st Edition( Feb 1998)/1-56592-292-1/442 pages/$29.95. This practical guide shows step-by-step how to write a driver for character devices, block devices, and network interfaces, illustrated with examples you can compile and run. Focuses on portability. See O'Reilly site for examples and errata.

Client/Server Programming With Java and Corba  by by Robert Orfali, Dan Harkey. Cd-Rom, Paperback, 832 pages Published by John Wiley & Sons  February 1998 ISBN: 047124578X.  Read a very interesting interview with the author Robert Orfali.

Free subscriptions on computer-related magazines (in USA and Canada):

• SunExpert: The Server/Workstation Magazine for UNIX/NT IS Managers and administrators. Written by
  UNIX/NT gurus. Featuring Ask Mr. Protocol. Web Week: Web Week is the Newspaper of Web Technology and Business Strategy
• Software Magazine: For the person whose career depends on implementing successful IT strategies.
• Computer Design: For engineering managers and senior designers. About technologies, integrated
  circuits, board-level products, embedded software, operating systems, and design automation tools.

Old books

BarnesandNoble.com Bargain Books -- the first editions of a couple of Java books (Just Java and Java by Example)and  will cost you $7.99 each. 

SVLUG Link Farm. Moo.

ONTRACK Defines New Standard in Unix Data Recovery Market

On Track Data Advisor - free download

Web-Based Courses from O'Reilly  -- free demo

Operating System Sucks-Rules-O-Meter

`Microshaft' Parody satirizes Microsoft

Dr. Bombay: Where to Find the `Any' Key and other stories

The Human Factor in Programming by Andrey Ershov

(in Russian,  codepage cp1251 a.k.a. Windows-1251)

The New York Times on Sputnik

Copyright 1998, Nikolai Bezroukov. Permission is granted to make and distribute copies of the bulletin as long as  the copyright and this notice appear on all copies. Standard disclaimer applies.