To the Editor
In XML-Journal, Vol. 1, issue 5, you printed an article entitled "High Performance XML Parsing in C++." Unfortunately, this was not an "informative" article but a sales pitch for a tool from a company called Bristol Technology. In the future, please title these items "Special Advertising Sections" as opposed to [inserting] them as editorial content.

I was heartily disappointed after purchasing this issue since all the information in the precursor article in Vol. 1, issue 3 showed how the existing (free) standard tools and APIs, SAX, DOM, etc., did such a poor job and promised that the solution was forthcoming. Little did we know that we would have to purchase this solution.

In addition, the article mentions files: acmepc.dtd
acmepcxml_parser.y
acmepcxml_lexer.l

These files are nowhere in the article, nor are they available online! So you advertised in the editorial section of the magazine and did not include promised sources in the aforementioned advertisement.

Hopefully, you'll get better at this. In the meantime, I'll read XML-J on the rack at my local bookstore without purchasing it until I'm convinced you're interested in improvement.

Kevin Timm
KevinDTimm@earthlink.net

The Editor Replies
I'm sorry you didn't like the article or that it didn't suit your needs. You have expressed some concerns about the quality of the magazine that I'd like to address. The articles here are carefully scrutinized before publication so that we publish only content of the highest quality.

I disagree with your opinion that the two articles you mentioned were "sales pitches." The author (Ken) discusses the shortcomings in existing technologies, and the main content was a technology focus that addressed an area that is often neglected in technical journals - the synergy between the C++ programming language and XML technologies. Many of us treat C++ applications as legacy applications and forget that a large part of the world still operates in C and C++. Ken discussed the approaches taken by DOM and SAX and went on to illustrate a possible approach to overcome the shortcomings. "Bristol Technology" was mentioned only once in the article and that was in the author's bio.

While we promote the publication of technology-based content, providing real applications adds substantial value. You can't achieve this without using some industry tools. Ken has experience with the tools he has used earlier, and utilized this to illustrate his points. Not once in the article does he try to sell Bristol Technology's tools. If that were the case, I'd agree with you about the content.

We do apologize for not providing the source code in time. This happens once in a while, but it is a rare occurrence. Please note that Ken was very prompt about personally sending you the source code and also making it available on the Web site.

I hope you continue to read our magazine and take advantage of the excellent quality of content it offers.

Ajit Sagar
Editor-in-Chief ajit @ SYS-CON.COM