Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a684
From: a684@mindlink.UUCP (Nick Janow)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Re: Off BASIS
Message-ID: <2963@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 27 Aug 90 18:03:46 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 27


JAJZ801@CALSTATE.BITNET (Jeff Sicherman,CSU Long Beach) writes:

> It would seem, from the recent postings about the distribution policy for
> BASIS13 that the committee is trying to inhibit, not prevent, the wide
> dispersal of the proposed standard.

Not at all.  I attended the last conference (Vancouver) and I was present when
the issue of electronic distribution format came up.  The committee wants
anyone interested in FORTH to have access to the documents, so that
constructive proposals and comments can be made.  The reason for limiting
distribution to the official format--which happens to be MSWORD--is to prevent
the misinterpretation of the contents of the document.  I don't know where the
problems would arise, but there is information contained in the format (bold
type, editor's comments, etc) that could cause confusion if lost.

It's not a plot to keep interested FORTH parties from having access to the
document.  If there was a truly standard format that would convey the
information properly _and_ if someone who knew how to use it volunteered to be
the editor, the committee would have chosen that format.  MSWORD just happened
to be what the volunteers used.  Are you offering them money to hire editing
services in some other format?  :)

The cheapest and most convenient method of getting the document is by mail.  It
doesn't solve the problem of electronically searching the document, but I find
the document fairly readable anyways; I find it easy enough to find what I'm
looking for.  I think it would be a lot more forbidding as computer text.