The editors mailing list at O'Reilly is the place where we discuss incoming proposals, book ideas we dream up ourselves, and the general direction of technology. Sometimes we argue over issues that may be useful to our readers, and we highlight them here. Remember that technology choices are rarely cut-and-dry, and our editors are opinionated.

Dear Scott/Dear Max

Edited by chromatic
December 2004

If there's one constant in the publishing world, it's the give-and-take relationship between editors and authors. A recent thread on the Editors List discussed this relationship among famous authors and editors as captured in their own words.

Read this discussion.

The State of Java

Edited by chromatic
October 2004

Is the Java revolution over? Has the big business-friendly approach turned Java into the new COBOL? Is the momentum behind .NET and Mono stealing away the cool factor that Java once enjoyed? Are those even bad things? In a recent discussion on the Editors List, several editors--programmers themselves--debated these questions.

Read this discussion.

On "Eats, Shoots & Leaves"

Edited by chromatic
May 2004

To keep everyone on the same page, publishers have style guides that spell out matters of punctuation, abbreviation, and good sense. There are, however, occasionally matters of contention between writers and editors, just as brace placement and tabs-versus-spaces can be contentious between developers. A recent thread From the Editors List brought out some well suppressed grammar geeks.

Read this discussion.