Richard E Maine wrote:
> On Jan 31, 2005, at 2:10 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> Giles is disappointed about the Private Nature of J3 and WG5
>> deliberations.
>> As many others have pointed out, this is simply not the case.
>
> And it has been pointed out before (including specifically to him). [...]
And I've pointed out before, specifically to you, that *I'M* not the
only person that might be interested. There are *lots* of Fortran
programmers. What percentage even know about the committee?
Posting something where few people look is not the same as
publicity. The committee should engage in *lots* of publicity.
That's the only way to get real public interest.
> As Van says so well, if one doesn't step up and volunteer to come to
> the meetings and scribe everything said, one isn't in a very good
> position to complain that nobody else has volunteered to do it for you.
> There was once a time when at least some of the major debates were
> scribed; yes, it can be done. But volunteers to do that have largely
> dried up. (And then there was a thankfully isolated case of a scribe
> who simply would not make even an attempt to present an impartial
> summary; the debates about fixing the scribe notes took longer than the
> original technical debate. :-().
Most debates should now be electronic and the meetings shoule be
de-emphasized anyway. The end goal is a printed document. If
the only way even committee members can understand it is through
some ineluctable process having to do with personal contact, then
it's not properly done.
> 2. The technical part of the work is important. And hard work.... And
> not enough. There is a people part also. You not only have to have good
> ideas and work hard on them. You also have to get other people to go
> along with them. This shouldn't be any great surprise to anyone here.
But, its evident that you can also get people to go along with bad
ideas. Something that would be harder if there was more publicity.
--
J. Giles
"I conclude that there are two ways of constructing a software
design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously
no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated
that there are no obvious deficiencies." -- C. A. R. Hoare
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