[ANSI-Smalltalk] Response to the first draft of our project
application
Bruce Badger
bwbadger at gmail.com
Mon Dec 17 15:48:17 GMT 2007
We have a response from INCITS to the first draft of our project
application. The application is largely OK and comments from INCITS
have been interspersed (see below). So that all quite good then.
What does not appear to be so good is the INCITS response to the
questions about accessibility of the standard text and openness of the
standard process. See below,
---------- Forwarded message ----------
This was a good first draft of the project proposal. There were just a
couple of corrections to the project proposal (3.4 and 3.42), and the
corrections are interspersed below. Also, there was text deleted from
2.6 " Internet discussion groups and". This project proposal along
with a cover letter requesting establishment of a committee needs to
be back to our office by next week if possible. The latest it can be
sent to our office to make the January agenda is December 26, 2007.
Just a couple of quick points regarding policy and procedures:
1) INCITS does not permit the use of wiki.
2) Our office will maintain the document repository for the group, the
reflector, and the mailing list.
3) This draft standard is copyright by our office.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Badger [mailto:bwbadger at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 12:33 AM
Subject: First draft of our project application
We have over 50 people on the ANSI Smalltalk mailing list now, and we
have several people willing to join INCITS. Some of the potential
INCITS members are employees of Smalltalk vendor companies and some
are individuals either self funding or seeking sponsorship.
We have a proposed first draft of the project application and I would
appreciate your comments on it. As you'll see we were not sure what
to say about section 3.4.2. We intend to make the process open to all
Smalltalkers and to have the text under development on our wiki. When
the text is voted on and made final, what happens to the copyright of
the text? Can we leave the text up on the wiki to form the basis of
the next version of the standard? Can we put text from the current
standard up on the wiki in order to extend it?
I am away from home at the moment on a business trip to Sydney,
Australia. This means I may be a little slow to respond and also
means that I can't make international phone calls (well, not without a
mortgage). I hope you can bear with me :-]
Anyway, below is our first draft of the application and you can also
see it on our wiki here:
http://smalltalk.gnu.org/wiki/ansi-smalltalk-project-application
All the best,
Bruce
~~~~~~~~
1. Source of the Proposed Project
1.1 Title
Smalltalk programming language standard
1.2 Date Submitted
month day year
1.3 Proposer(s)
2. Process Description for the Proposed Project
2.1 Project Type (Development or Revision)
R. This is a project to revise NCITS 319-1998, the ANSI Smalltalk
standard.
2.2 Type of Document
The project will develop a standard for the Smalltalk programming
language.
2.3 Definitions of Concepts and Special Terms
No new concepts or special terms are anticipated to be
required by this project.
2.4 Expected Relationship with Approved Reference Models,
Frameworks, Architectures, etc.
None.
2.5 Recommended INCITS Development Technical Committee (Existing or New)
We recommend a new committee for this project.
2.6 Anticipated Frequency and Duration of Meetings
We anticipate that the bulk of the work can be carried out
utilizing conference
calls. The committee will meet physically at the 2 regular
Smalltalk conferences,
so twice a year.
2.7 Target Date for Initial Public Review (Milestone 4)
April 2009
2.8 Estimated Useful Life of Standard or Technical Report
There is now known limit to the useful life of this standard.
3. Business Case for Developing the Proposed Standard or Technical Report
3.1 Description
The proposed project will continue the work started with the ANSI
INCITS 319-1998 standard.
3.2 Existing Practice and the Need for a Standard
ANSI INCITS 319-1998 has been widely adopted in the various
dialects of Smalltak, but programming practice and the IT
landscape have moved on. The proposed project aims to keep
the Smalltalk standard current.
3.3 Implementation Impacts of the Proposed Standard
3.3.1 Development Costs
The Smalltalk standard will reduce costs for the users of
Smalltalk dialects by making libraries and utilities more
easily portable between dialects and thus reducing rework
costs.
3.3.2 Impact on Existing or Potential Markets
The consistency between Smalltalk dialects brought about by
the standard will help make Smalltalk an even more attractive
option for application developers and so the Smalltalk market
has a whole will be strengthened.
3.3.3 Costs and Methods for Conformity Assessment
The idea of automated unit tests has long been established
in the Smalltalk community. A suite of unit tests for
conformance with INCITS 319-1998 already exists. Extensions
to the Smalltalk standard would be reflected in these unit
tests.
3.3.4 Return on Investment
For all parties the return on the investment of time and
resources in the Smalltalk standard will come from an
enlarged market for Smalltalk products and services.
3.4 Legal Considerations
3.4.1 Patent Assertions
There are no known patents relevant to this standard.
3.4.2 Dissemination of the Standard or Technical Report
Drafts of this standard will be distributed electronically.
4. Related Standards Activities
4.1 Existing Standards
INCITS 319-1998
4.2 Related Standards Activity
We are not aware of any other work on a Smalltalk standard
4.3 Recommendations for Close Liaison
none
5. Units of Measurement used in the Standard
n/a
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