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,a25ce7569da9f8bc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-03-20 13:00:43 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.rwth-aachen.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!paladin.american.edu!auvm!PSAVAX.PWFL.COM!CONDIC Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Message-ID: Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 12:37:58 EST Sender: Ada programming language From: CONDIC@PSAVAX.PWFL.COM Subject: Re: Standards - on the net or for sale? Date: 1995-03-20T12:37:58-05:00 List-Id: From: Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93 Subject: Re: Standards - on the net or for sale? Original_To: PROFS%"SMTP@PWAGPDB" Original_cc: CONDIC Michael Feldman Writes: >Both these writers have been very active in standards work; I know Roy >has been a player in the ACM standards committee. The important point >they make in their article is that inaccessibility and high price of >standards inhibits their active use, and this flies in the face of >all the zillions of hours of (mostly) volunteer work that goes into >making a good standard, in the hope that the standard will be used. > I'd have to most vehemently agree with this view. Certainly, private organizations (IEEE, et alia) are perfectly free to charge whatever they want for their standards, but it contributes to cutting their own throats. If they're free and easy to get, they'll get used and hence become _REAL_ standards, not just "paper" standards. What does tend to gall me is when the _GOVERNMENT_ doesn't make this stuff available on the Internet for free and easy access by all of us who must use the standards they define. After all, we've already paid for this stuff in the form of taxes, most of these things would almost certainly be in machine readable form already and it would save the government money by having industry pay to murder all those trees to print out the standards as they need them. Should we start lobbying Congress? I hear lots of Congressmen now have Internet addresses... (BTW: If the opposite of "pro" is "con" - what is the opposite of "progress"? :-)) Pax, Marin Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer ATT: 407.796.8997 M/S 731-93 Technet: 796.8997 Pratt & Whitney, GESP Internet: CONDICMA@PWFL.COM P.O. Box 109600 Internet: MDCONDIC@AOL.COM West Palm Beach, FL 33410-9600 =============================================================================== Please send responses to one of the addresses in this trailer. A "reply" to the address in the message header will bounce. =============================================================================== Glendower: "I can call spirits from the vasty deep." Hotspur: "Why so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?" -- Shakespeare, "Henry IV" ===============================================================================