A Gathering of Detritus

Another year has rolled around, offering the chance to speculate on the future and reflect on the past. Mainly, it gives me the opportunity to toss in all the stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else.

To begin with, the embedded world seems to be thriving. Market research firm Integrated Circuit Engineering reports that the microcontroller market in 1997 amounted to a whopping $13 billion. By the millennium, ICE projects it to be an even more whopping $20 billion plus, which is well over four times the size of the market when Embedded Systems Programming was launched in late 1988.

Some things haven't changed over that time. In his editorial in the premiere issue of ESP , then editor J.D. Hildebrand promised that the magazine would contain "hands-on, authoritative, technically challenging articles." That continued to be the goal during the years that Tyler Sperry was in charge, and it's still the goal. I confess that it's easier today to find good articles because of the diligence of my predecessors.

Another thing that hasn't changed is the look of the magazine. Oh sure, there have been some tweaks to the format and art, and we've added a few new columns and a news page. But adding and changing elements in a magazine is like tacking on features to a product after it has been developed. Can you say "kludge?" Sooner or later you have to suck it up and design a new version from scratch. That's why after nearly a decade, we're going to develop a new and improved, higher-powered ESP . To be sure, we'll reuse as many modules as possible. Even so, the redesign will not only result in changes to the look of the magazine but the contents as well. For one thing, when the redesigned magazine debuts in April, you can expect to see a new column by an author with whom you're likely to be quite familiar.

The magazine isn't the only thing that's changing this year: an updated CD-ROM is also in the works, which will include all the articles and columns published in the magazine from the premier issue through December 1997, plus the 1997 Buyer's Guide . Look for an announcement of the new CD in the magazine and on the Web site in a month or so.

Speaking of the Web site, aside from the obligatory redesign that debuted last month, we've expanded news coverage by adding feeds from PR Newswire and Reuters. We've also added a bookstore to make it easier to locate and purchase books related to embedded development. More of the contents of each issue are now on-line as well. The Buyer's Guide tables, which have been on-line in html format for quite a while, have recently been posted as PDF files so that you can print them out. More importantly, the tables are now in a completely searchable database. Taking a cue from shareware.com, we're also providing links to product demos on the Web site where you can download trial versions of tools. As the year progresses, still more downloads will become available.

And last, because Nicholas Cravotta has been pirated away from ESP by those rapscallions at Multimedia Systems Design , I'm looking for a technical editor to replace him. If you've got an embedded development background and yearn to toil in the heart of San Francisco's financial district, then this may be your opportunity. If you hurry, you can add your two cents to the redesign.