FROM THE
EDITOR’S DESK
Communications of the ACM has been most fortunate to have had seven
authoritative stewards lead its editorial direction over most of these last 50
years. The editors-in-chief (EICs) who have served this publication, and the
computer science community, with their foresight and dedication to the cause
are some of the prime reasons why CACM continues to thrive even as computing interests, membership dynamics, and professional demands change and
expand in scope. CACM’s EICs were always focused on finding the common
thread among a very broad-based audience, searching out the field’s shining
stars, and making sure the final product was always of the utmost quality and
professional value.
In the following section, we present stories from the five surviving CACM
EICs (Calvin C. Gotlieb, M. Stuart Lynn, Robert L. Ashenhurst, Peter J.
Denning, and Jacques Cohen) who share some poignant memories from their
days at the helm, as well as some of the challenges they faced, and their hopes
for this publication as it moves forward. We also excerpt some of the decisive
and intuitive editorial convictions of Alan Perlis (CACM’s first EIC) and
Gerard Salton (its third) as they embarked on their stellar editorships. And we
introduce the newly appointed CACM EIC, Moshe Y. Vardi, who unveils
news of an exciting editorial revitalization for this publication and the work
that led to the creation of this plan.