Re: Config_Files proposal

[Stephen Leake <stephen.a.leake.1@gsfc.nasa.gov>]

Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> writes:

> Stephen Leake wrote:
> > Ok. Good question. I guess I'm learning how to do consensus on a
> > newsgroup.
> 
> With the Lists stuff, often I would just pick a choice, start arguing
> its merits, and wait to see if anyone screamed. If no one complains:
> bingo! :-)

That approach does have a certain appeal.

> You should probably at least post the merits and drawback of each
> approach, as you see it. Presumably others will do the same if they
> think you missed something.

Hmm. I did that on the web page. By "post", do you mean here on
comp.lang.ada? 

> > If we end up with an overwhelming majority for one format, I'll
> > take that as consensus. If it's close, or there are only a few
> > votes, I'll be back :).
> 
> The problem with a vote is there is no real weight on it, and no good
> idea of the rationale behind the numbers. The nightmare scenario is
> that the majority was just going with the flow to get things moving,
> while the minority voting against it had a damn good reason.

Yes. However, that's why I posted the rationale (or at least the start
of one). I hoped that the ensuing discussion would bring out all the
"good reasons". I wanted a vote to put a specific end to the
discussion; sometimes that motivates people to respond. But I could
just as easily have said "I will pick a format on Tuesday; post your
comments by then".

> The other issue with getting consensus is that we want to make sure
> we don't leave %49 or %32 of everyone behind every time we make a
> decision. We need as near to a universal buy-in as we can get.

Well, we could define a vote to be successful only if 80% agree.
Either way, we are just counting people's opinions.

My impression so far is that there is strong sentiment against XML as
being too complex to hand-edit. And there is strong sentiment against
ini because it doesn't have multi-level keys. Other than that, nobody
cares much. So it probably is easier for me to say "I'm picking Java
property format, unless anyone has serious objections".

That also avoids the issue of whether we get a quorum in the voting
process. 

Thanks for putting up with my learning curve :).

-- 
-- Stephe