From the Caravanserai

Well, so much for 1996. "The Moving Finger writes, and having writ/Moves on," quoth Omar (the tentmaker) Khayyam in Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubaiyat. Omar apparently didn't have to worry about the perils of monthly publication. Around here, the moving finger, having writ, has to write again next month. However, Omar's nod to the inexorable passage of time is probably relevant to our segue into 1997 (see http://kcmo.com/text/rubai10.txt for the real context and a biography of the twelfth century Persian poet and astronomer). The down side of the arrival of the new year is the obligation to compile resolutions. To give you an idea of our plans for 1997, here are a few of our resolutions:

Increase coverage of the embedded systems community. The embedded development niche has stretched to a chasm. New tools, methodologies, and microcontroller architectures appear on the market almost daily. At the same time, mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs affect the way you do business with your favorite vendors. This year's plans include instituting a news section focused on the embedded systems market to help you keep tabs on the players. In addition, we intend to

Increase coverage of digital signal processing. Don Morgan, who has written two or three DSP articles for Embedded Systems Programming, has consented to write a monthly column, called Spectra, that addresses signal processing from a software developer's perspective. Don has 20 years of experience in embedded development and signal processing, has two books to his credit, and has also published in Dr. Dobb's Journal and Communication Systems Design. Take a look at this month's offering in which Don outlines the scope of his column. He will present practical information, the kind that you may want to refer to later. And if the information is all that practical, it ought to be easily accessible, say on a CD-ROM. So the next resolution is to

Issue an updated CD-ROM. The original Embedded Systems CD-ROM contained the articles, columns, reviews, and code from the issues published between 1988 and 1994. A new CD-ROM, now close to production, has all that plus all the good stuff from 1995 and 1996, including the Buyer's Guide. Like the magazine, the CD-ROM is a way to disseminate information, which is really the business we're in. Consequently, another resolution for 1997 is to

Expand www.embedded.com. Web sites always seem to be works in progress, ours included. Since Miller Freeman has acquired directory publisher MWMedia, we've incorporated product directories onto the site. We've also added the 1996 Buyer's Guide. In addition, this year you'll find it easier to subscribe to the magazine and register for conferences over the Internet. The news and new product sections on the web will grow, thanks to increased staffing. Soon you'll have a place to post your resumes, and you'll be able to order books relevant to embedded development, proceedings from the Embedded Systems and DSP World Conferences, and the CD-ROM.

Omar Khayyam advises us that after the moving finger has writ, "nor all thy Piety nor Wit/Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line." Sounds like an observation that Pierre Salinger might have made. In light of the temporal transition, the staff of Embedded Systems Programming wishes all of you an entertaining and prosperous new year.

Lindsey Vereen