Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!uunet!world!wmm
From: wmm@world.std.com (William M Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c++
Subject: Re: "module" facility for top-level namespace control
Keywords: namespace, module
Message-ID: <1991Apr28.231509.2164@world.std.com>
Date: 28 Apr 91 23:15:09 GMT
References: <5143@lupine.NCD.COM> <1358@appli.se> <5281@lupine.NCD.COM>
Distribution: comp.std.c++
Organization: Glockenspiel, Ltd.
Lines: 32

rfg@NCD.COM (Ron Guilmette) writes:
> >... Should we (the net) try to write a proposal
> >to the ANSI commitee before their june meeting in Lund, Sweden (at
> >least I think that's the case, some of the members will speak at
> >some seminars there, which I'll try to attend).
>
> Sure.  Why not?  I think that the x3j16 committee (and especially the
> libraries working group) would  probably thank us for it.

The more, the merrier!  (There's already scheduled to be a proposal from a
committee member on this topic at the Lund meeting.)

> First off, I must say that I think that the proposal should be entirely
> non-committal about the specific syntax and keywords used.
>                                         Arguing for a specific keyword
> (or set of keywords) is only likely to turn-off some members of x3j16,
> so why not just propose the feature and ask x3j16 to decide what keywords
> they want to use to express it?

Well, this sounds plausible, I suppose, but as a member of the extensions
working group, I think I speak for most of us in saying that complete
proposals, including consideration of the syntactic impact of the proposed
feature, are *much* preferable to "Here's the idea, now you go off and work
out the details" proposals.  If there is a problem with the syntax you
propose but the rest of the idea is attractive, the worst that will happen
is that you'll be informed of the problems and asked to try and solve them;
if you submit a "concept only" proposal, there's a good likelihood that it
will simply be consigned to the large pile of "good ideas" that are waiting
for someone to make into a complete proposal.

-- William M. Miller, vice chair, X3J16
   wmm@world.std.com