Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!a.gp.cs.cmu.edu!koopman
From: koopman@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Philip Koopman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: ANS Forth Trial Run (was Re: The real question)
Summary: the issue is a trial run of a standard system
Message-ID: <11618@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 20 Jan 91 17:31:39 GMT
References: <4489@mindlink.UUCP> <15788@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 33

In article <15788@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>, ir230@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (john wavrik) writes:
> [[entertaining stuff about dating deleted]]
> The idea of dating sounds like a good idea.  I wish that there
> were a way of making a formal proposal to the ANSI team to allow
> a dating period before they declare this phase of their work finished.
> (Someone should make a test implementation -- they were doing that
> for a while -- and let the Forth Community see what would be involved
> if she were to become a companion for life.)

Maybe I am wrong, but here is what I am assuming will happen:
The "proposed standard" (dpANS? I don't remember the acronym)
will be released for review by the community.  Farsighted
vendors who want to ensure they have a future will immediately
release Forth systems that conform (it should be easy, since
the standard is probably changing less with each revision now).
Then, people in the Forth community who are worried about being
"stuck" will use those compilers for their next big piece of
code.  If it doesn't work, they'll scream loud and long.
If it does work, they have a leg up on using the new standard
Forth for all their future projects.

Presumably, there will be enough time for this process to
happen (a few months).
Those who don't make an effort to actually use the new (proposed)
standard for real work will not have earned the right
to complain when the final version is issued.  Those who
do use it will be able to contribute to a final product
based on real-world experience, to the benefit of all.

  Phil Koopman                koopman@greyhound.ece.cmu.edu   Arpanet
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