ACCU (organisation)

ACCU (previously known as "Association of C and C++ Users") is a non-profit, worldwide user group of people interested in software development, dedicated to raising the standard of programming. Originally, the association was primarily for C programmers, but it has expanded over time to include all programming languages, especially C++, C#, Java, Perl and Python.

The ACCU publishes two [http://accu.org/index.php/aboutus/aboutjournals journal] s and organizes [http://accu.org/index.php/conferences a conference] annually in or near Oxford.

History

ACCU was formed in 1987 by Martin Houston. The original name of the organisation was "C Users' Group (UK)" and this remains the formal name of the organisation today, although it adopted the public name "Association of C and C++ Users" for the period 1993Fact|date=June 2008-2006, and adopted the shorter form "ACCU" from 2006 onwardscite web|author=ACCU|date=2006-04-22|accessdate=2008-06-09|url=http://accu.org/index.php/constitution|publisher=ACCU|title=ACCU Constitution] . The ACCU is operated by a volunteer committee, elected at an Annual General Meeting which usually takes place during theannual [http://accu.org/index.php/conferences ACCU conference] each Spring in or near Oxford.

As the formal name suggests, the organisation was originally created for people in the United Kingdom. However, the membership is now worldwide, predominantly European and North American, but also with members from central and southern America, Australasia, Africa and Asia.

Publications

The ACCU currently publishes two [http://accu.org/index.php/aboutus/aboutjournals journal] s.

* C Vu is a members-only journal which acts as the association's news letter and carries book reviews, articles on software development and a number of regular columns such as "Student Code Critique" and "Professionalism in Programming".

* Overload aims to carry more in-depth articles aimed at professional software developers. Topics range from programming and design through to process and management. [http://accu.org/index.php/overloadonline Overload is available online] to members and non-members free of charge.

Other journals have been published by ACCU in the past. Accent was the news letter of the Silicon Valley Chapter and CAUGers was the news letter of the Acorn special interest group. Overload was originally the journal of ACCU's C++ special interest group, but is no longer language-specific.

Local groups

The Silicon Valley Chapter has long organized [http://accu.org/index.php/accu_branches local meetings] in San Jose. In recent years, local groups have been formed in London, Cambridge, North East England, Oxford, Southern England and Zurich.

Conference

The [http://accu.org/index.php/conferences ACCU conference] is held annually in or near Oxford. It often attracts well-known figures within the computing community as speakers; including David Abrahams, Andrei Alexandrescu, Ross Anderson, [http://users.rcn.com/jcoplien/ James Coplien] , Tom Gilb, Kevlin Henney, Andrew Koenig, Simon Peyton-Jones, Eric S Raymond, Guido van Rossum, Greg Stein, Bjarne Stroustrup (the designer and original implementor of C++), Herb Sutter and [http://www.vandevoorde.com/ Daveed Vandevoorde] , amongst others.

The [http://www.pyconuk.org/ UK Python Conference] , for the Python programming language, originally started out as a track at the ACCU conferencecite web|author=ACCU|date=2002-04-03|accessdate=2008-06-11|url=http://accu.org/index.php/conferences/2002/schedule2002|publisher=ACCU|title=ACCU 2002 Schedule] .

tandardisation Involvement

ACCU actively supports the standardisation process for computer programming languages. ACCU has provided financial sponsorship of meetings in the UK for both the ISO C working group and the ISO C++ working groups. Additionally, ACCU has helped finance travel of UK experts to ECMA meetings in mainland Europe.

A number of ACCU members are also members of their national standards organization' groups that send delegates to the ISO working group meetings. Several members of the United Kingdom's national body's sub-committees, the IST5 committee of the British Standards Institution, are also ACCU members. The working groups are developing the next versions of various programming language standards, specifically for C and C++.

Mailing Lists

The ACCU operates a number of mailing lists, some of which are also open to non-members. These lists allow for general programming-orientated discussions, but also for mentored discussions.

Past mentored groups have included Effective C++, Python, Software Patterns, Functional programming and XML. They are often based around study of a book.

References

External links

* [http://accu.org/ ACCU Official Site]
* [http://accu.org/index.php/overloadonline ACCU Overload online]
* [http://www.hal9k.com/cug/ CUG]
* [http://www.accu-usa.org/ ACCU Silicon Valley Chapter]
* [http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/ JTC1/SC22/WG14 - C]
* [http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ JTC1/SC22/WG21 - The C++ Standards Committee]
* [http://www.boost.org/ Boost C++ Libraries]