Re: Clause "with and use"

["Alexandre E. Kopilovitch" <aek@vib.usr.pu.ru>]

Stephane Richard wrote:

> > Why not introduce CLAI (Comp.Lang.Ada-Issue), a kind of user-level AI ?
> >
> > Both mentioned proposals may well be included there, along with several others.
> >
> > A proposal will naturally belong to CLAI set if it makes some sense for users,
> > generally doesn't contradict Ada language, but have little chance to be accepted
> > by ARG due to low value/effort criteria for that proposal.
> >
> > A formal criteria for inclusion into CLAI set may be explicit statement in
> > comp.lang.ada from at least 1 ARG member that he (I still never seen "she"
> > there -:) thinks that the proposal satisfies the above informal criteria.
> >
> > I venture to think that AdaWorld website (for example) may host a page (or
> > pages) carrying those CLAI.
> >
> > This my suggestion isn't aimed against recurring discussions in comp.lang.ada
> > about those issues. I just came to think that it might be sometimes useful
> > to have a humble repository for such proposals, at least for two purposes:
> > first, having a place to which a reference can be made, and second, having
> > an opportunity to review the whole list of them. (Letting imagination go wild,
> > one may expect that arguments pro and contra a CLAI may be collected and listed
> > also, thus providing some picture and even, in lucky circumctances, paving
> > the CLAI a way to become a true AI.)
>
> I like the idea, and I'm more than willing to make it happen too :-).
> Here's a few questions that you and other interested parties might want to
> answer.
>
> How to do picture this CLAI?

I'm not sure that I understand this your question (our English dialects
probably differ at this point -;) . If you mean an icon for the link to the
CLA page, then it may be something like 

http://www.grmuseum.org/whatsnew/Corbyonknees.jpg

-:)  Or something else... -:)

> How would you (and the others too) like to see this created?

I imagine a separate page for the whole list of CLAIs. Each entry in this list
has unique CLAI-id (CLAI-nnn), short description and very short code example.
Every CLAI-id points to another page, specific for this CLAI, on which full
proposition is fully described, following with an array of comments.

> How would you like to create/edit issues?

I think that the site owner/webmaster only should change the contents of that
part of the site, that is, no direct uploads or changes by other persons shoul
be allowed. Only original author of a published CLAI (or a comment to it) may
request its deletion or change of that entry; moreover, if a CLAI has comments
or a comment has dependent comments then this CLAI or comment should not be
deleted anyway, it should be made anonymous instead,

So, we have 3 types of requests: add new CLAI, add a comment, remove (or made
anonymous) a CLAI or comment. And 1 type of clearance: statement from a member
of the ARG that proposed CLAI generally does not contradict Ada (in some
reasonable sense) and does not pose immediate threat to Ada's important features
(such as high degree of upward compatibility). All that requests as well as
a clearance should be posted in comp.land.ada, and picked from there.

> Would there be official categories to consider, like syntax issues,
> libraries issues, etc etc...to help search and post issues in the right
> places?  if so perhaps a list of them, to start with might be a good idea.

I do not think that categorization is needed from the start. Judging from recent
(say, 1 year back period) discussions in comp.lang.ada, right now we may have
3-5 CLAIs for publication. I do not think that categorization is usefulf before
the list exceeds, say, 10-15 entries. It is usually unpleasant, and perhaps
even annoying to see a page with just 2-3 categories, with 1-2 entries in each,
or a list of 10 categories, 8 of which are empty.



Alexander Kopilovitch                      aek@vib.usr.pu.ru
Saint-Petersburg
Russia