Editorial

At the time of writing this editorial, subscribers will have just received their copies of the triple issue honouring the work of Rod Burstall. Coordinating this collection was a substantial undertaking; and thanks go to all concerned, particularly to David Rydeheard and Don Sannella and the behind the scenes production staff. We (the journal editors) hope you agree that it was well worth waiting for the fascinating collection.

The production and scheduling of that set of papers, and other incidental but cumulative factors, have contributed to recent issues being late. We hope soon to be back close to our planned, evenly timed, publication timetable; however it also seems timely to mention, and to reiterate, some changes which are afoot.

As of this issue (14.1) we shall revert to our initial publication frequency of 4 issues per year, but these will be larger than in earlier volumes and will retain the large page format adopted in Volume 12. [A reminder for authors who use LaTeX to use the new class files.] We are now receiving, and publishing, long papers (but still with the option of including supplementary material on the web) and, except in special issues, strive to achieve a reasonable coverage of topics within the given constraints.

Although normally skipped over, readers of the journal front matter might notice periodic changes to the editorial board. These usually go unmentioned; our editors (who are working editors, not merely ‘names’) seek no reward or praise. Readers will also notice the recently modernised BCS-FACS logo and a declaration that the journal (although truly international in scope) was founded by (BCS-)FACS, some even to this day refer to it as ‘the FACS journal’, and we are very happy for this to continue.

Bringing these two threads together gets me to the point of this digression. Dan Simpson founded the BCS specialist group on Formal Aspects of Computing Science some 25 years ago. Without his radical suggestion that the BCS had a specialist group that actually addressed Computer Science, there would have been no FACS and no FACS journal. Dan has recently finished his spell as Dean in the Faculty of IT at Brighton University and he has also resigned as a member of our editorial board. As you can see, he was active to the very end being responsible for progressing 2 of the 3 papers in this issue. I gather he now intends to concern himself with other matters; I would counsel a less stressful life and more Bob Dylan music.

He has been a friend and colleague of many of those associated with the FACS group and its journal; on their behalf may I offer a big ‘thank you’ for all that you have done for us and offer our best wishes for whatever endeavours you are about to embark upon. Very many years ago, at a conference, I heard someone respond in debate “I didn't see who said that but it sounded like Mr Simpson from Teesside … .” – well it's no longer ‘Mr’ nor ‘Teesside’ but I can't believe that we really have seen or heard the last of this Yorkshire lad.

Thanks, goodbye and good luck.