Dropping the naming question for now... I object to the idea of versioning standards as it appears to be proposed. The working drafts (or whatever we want to call them) must be versioned (and I prefer the date rather than the number which has some implicit significance about degree of finality... a very specious concept). But once something is a standard, the document should not be versioned. If the content of a standard needs to be a changed, it should not be done lightly. There needs to be a superceding standard that will, as part of its title, indicate that it deals with a different version of the protocol, interface or whatever. If there is consensus, this superceding standard can easily be fast-tracked. But having multiple versions of a "standard" merely suggests that the standard was not properly thought out and reviewed in the first place.
Bill Wagner
-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Lewis [mailto:harryl at us.ibm.com]
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 3:03 PM
To: Hastings, Tom N
Cc: Farrell, Lee; PWG (E-mail)
Subject: RE: PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron
I propose we draft a working draft of a proposal for drafting draft standards proposals. Oh.. that's right.. we did that once...
Seriously... can we move off the topic of how the brain and tongue work together and focus on what appeared to be the issues with substance from yesterday's call?
1. 3 tier or 2 tier. We had a 3 step process but I'm willing to reduce this to 2 steps based on our experience
- We used to call our 3 step process Proposed, Draft and Standard
- We can call our 2 step process anything but I think Proposed and Standard were the most vocal (Draft and Standard does fit better in my brain... but then there is this endless debate.. anyone got a coin)?
2. Versioning
- <major>.<minor>.<revision>
- date coded
We have documents in or nearing last call which really depend on closure.
----------------------------------------------
Harry Lewis
IBM Printing Systems
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"Hastings, Tom N" <hastings at cp10.es.xerox.com>
Sent by: owner-pwg at pwg.org
01/31/2003 12:35 PM
To: "Farrell, Lee" <Lee.Farrell at cda.canon.com>
cc: "PWG (E-mail)" <pwg at pwg.org>
Subject: RE: PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron
Lee and Bill,
The problem is what do you call successive versions of the Draft Standard, before you are ready to send it out for Last Call?
Working Drafts of the Draft Standard?
Using "Draft" in two different senses in the same sentence to identify a document is pretty confusing. And we know that people in normal conversion like to drop the adjectives and just talk about the "Draft". So which do they mean when they say the "Draft is ...".
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: Farrell, Lee [mailto:Lee.Farrell at cda.canon.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 18:33
To: PWG (E-mail)
Subject: RE: PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron
Duh.
[If people can understand "jumbo shrimp" without losing sleep, I don't see why "draft standard" would cause a problem.]
lee
-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Lewis [mailto:harryl at us.ibm.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 6:05 PM
To: Hastings, Tom N
Cc: pwg at pwg.org
Subject: Re: PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron
Er... Um... so why is it so hard to put the definition to use and realize that a "Draft Standard" is a preliminary version of a "Standard"?
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Harry Lewis
IBM Printing Systems
----------------------------------------------
"Hastings, Tom N" <hastings at cp10.es.xerox.com>
Sent by: owner-pwg at pwg.org
01/30/2003 04:24 PM
To: pwg at pwg.org
cc:
Subject: PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron
Here is why I think that "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron. Draft is too
fleeting. Standard is meant to be more stable.
So I looked up the word "Draft" in the dictionary. Webster's Seventh
Collegiate Dictionary says:
"a preliminary sketch, outline, or version".
We all use the word "draft" (or "working draft") to mean the document that
we update rapidly to get to a version that we all consider stable enough to
have a Last Call.
So one of the appealing suggestions made at today's call was to just remove
section 3.4 Draft Standard and have only 3.4 Proposed Standard and 3.6
Standard. Both have to have a series of drafts to be reviewed to lead up to
being an approved Proposed Standard or an approved Standard. And both need
to have a draft that is considered good enough to both trying a Last Call
and then the Last Call has to actually pass.
I think much of our trouble is terminology, so fixing the terminology, and
deleting a step seems to be a good thing to do and is NOT abandoning the
process or overturning turnips.
Tom
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