Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!olivea!orc!inews!iwarp.intel.com!ogicse!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!percy!data!kend From: kend@data.UUCP (Ken Dickey) Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme Subject: Re^2: Scheme standard approved Message-ID: <440@data.UUCP> Date: 11 Dec 90 22:49:40 GMT References: <9012101321.aa19682@mc.lcs.mit.edu> Organization: Microcosm, Beaverton, OR Lines: 38 [I know I am going to get flamed for this as I tend to piss people off in email. Apologies in advance. One of these years I will learn more self control...] ted@nmsu.edu (Ted Dunning) writes: >In article <9012101321.aa19682@mc.lcs.mit.edu> chaynes@SUNFISH.CS.INDIANA.EDU (Chris Haynes) writes: > ... > In accordance with IEEE policy, drafts of the standard will no > longer be distributed by MIT and Indiana University. >does this mean that the draft will no longer be available via ftp? >if so, isn't this a giant leap backwards for the scheme community? I think that you should take another look at the people Chris has mentioned and the amount of effort they have invested. On the positive side, some sw companies only allow the use of languages which have a formal standard from a recognized standards body. This standard means that I can now work for such a company and have the possibility of using Scheme. A major goal in doing the standard was not to stifle research. Another was to be a subset of the R^4RS. Both goals have been met as closely as possible. The result is the best langauge standard I have seen [please take a look at several of them!]. There was a long discussion among the Scheme authors as to whether Scheme should be standardized. I am not going to attempt to recontruct that discussion here. Needless to say, an agreement was reached that a standard was better than no standard and that the IEEE process gave the optimal result. The IEEE retains the copyright to the standard. This is one price of that particular process. I believe that having both an IEEE Standard and R^NRS takes the Scheme community a good step forward. We certainly owe a debt to the people Chris mentioned as well as to Chris Haynes himself. -Ken Dickey