COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM
Association for Computing Machinery
Advancing Computing as a Science & Profession
I
M
A
G
E
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
O
F
R
S
C
.
O
R
G
/
C
H
E
M
I
S
T
R
Y
W
O
R
L
D
Departments
5 Letter from ACM’s Director
of Information Systems
Raising ACM’s Digital Library
By Wayne Graves
6 Letters to the Editor
Make Abstracts
Communicate Results
7 Cerf’s Up
‘As We May Think’
By Vinton G. Cerf
8 Blog@ACM
Advice on Teaching CS,
and the Learnability
of Programming Languages
Valerie Barr considers how attitude
can impact teacher effectiveness,
while Mark Guzdial suggests
the ultimate focus in teaching
programming languages should
be on usability.
33 Calendar
92 Careers
Last Byte
96 Q&A
Object Lessons
The creator of the Eiffel programming
language discusses his career in
industry and academia, “Design by
Contract,” and his views on Agile
software development.
By Leah Hoffmann
News
13 Automating Organic Synthesis
A machine that could create
organic molecules on demand
awaits appropriate software
and analytical components.
By Keith Kirkpatrick
16 Car Talk
Vehicle-to-vehicle communication
is coming. Are we ready for it?
By Tom Geller
19 Python for Beginners
A survey found the language
in use in introductory
programming classes in the top
U.S. computer science schools.
By Esther Shein
Viewpoints
22 Legally Speaking
Copyrightability of Java APIs Revisited
A recent case challenges the long-standing view that application
program interfaces are not
protectable under copyright law.
By Pamela Samuelson
25 Broadening Participation
Reaching a Broader Population
of Students through
“Unplugged” Activities
Introducing children to fundamental
computing concepts through
Computer Science Unplugged.
By Thomas J. Cortina
28 The Profession of IT
A Technician Shortage
In our elation about rising CS
enrollments, we are overlooking
a growing shortage of computing
technicians. Our education system
is not responding to this need.
By Peter J. Denning
and Edward E. Gordon
31 Computing Ethics
Humans in Computing: Growing
Responsibilities for Researchers
Considering the role of institutional
review boards in computing research.
By John Leslie King
34 Viewpoint
The Real Software Crisis:
Repeatability as a Core Value
Sharing experiences running
artifact evaluation committees
for five major conferences.
By Shriram Krishnamurthi and Jan Vitek
37 Viewpoint
Why Did Computer Science
Make a Hero Out of Turing?
Comparing the legacy of Alan Turing
in computer science with that of
Carl Friedrich Gauss in mathematics.
By Maarten Bullynck, Edgar G. Daylight,
and Liesbeth De Mol
13