From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c78684b2d4add105 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-10-13 05:13:05 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F8A96CE.6050207@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Feasibility/Requirements/Wishes of xAL (was: Standard Library Interest?) References: <3F88D5E3.9010702@comcast.net> <3F897415.6030804@noplace.com> <3F89DB96.80708@comcast.net> <3F89E5C5.80804@noplace.com> <3F89F96F.5050003@comcast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:13:05 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.23.79 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net 1066047185 209.165.23.79 (Mon, 13 Oct 2003 05:13:05 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 05:13:05 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:775 Date: 2003-10-13T12:13:05+00:00 List-Id: There's a job for some TBD SIGAda committee - and one that is best dealt with by a committee. As you observe, its potentially time consuming, so you'd want to be sure it was adequately covered. As you bring up AdaPower, this is an illustration of the problem with a volunteer effort. I don't know how actively David Botton is doing anything with it at this time, but he clearly spent some time making a wonderful website that served a very useful purpose. However, being as its a "volunteer" effort, its difficult to keep putting energy into it over time when other priorities come up in life. We could also sit here and dream up "Requirements" for AdaPower and try to impose them on David - and they might be really wonderful and important requirements too - but we aren't paying him to do the work, so how could we expect to get it done? That's why I'm thinking that a CAL would need some paid support in order to succeed. There might be some amount of work that is done by volunteers - I could imagine some people submitting specialized chunks of the library just because they want to see it come along with Ada compilers for their own convenience, etc. But developing and managing the library over time is likely to be something too big and too important to leave in the hands of volunteers. MDC Robert I. Eachus wrote: > > > I don't want the (possibly volunteer) developers spending all their time > dealing with naming issues--which as I pointed out can include trademark > and copyright issues. That is the stuff that formal standards > committees can be good at. Look at all the chaos caused by AdaPower > once the site was no longer maintained. Having an authority to resolve > naming disputes is very helpful when it comes time to clear the underbrush. > > But again, as I said, it is useless without a group of developers who > want to do things right. With active developers using it, it becomes > one of those committees where the chair does several hours of work a > week. Everyone else on the committee does a couple hours of work every > three or four months, when the chairperson actually needs the committee > to make an official decision. > -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g "All reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for." --Logan Pearsall Smith ======================================================================