Xref: utzoo news.announce.newgroups:1172 news.groups:32490 comp.specification:342 comp.software-eng:5802 Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.specification,comp.software-eng Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!bounce-back From: Jonathan Bowen Subject: 2nd CFV and VOTE ACK: comp.specification.z Message-ID: <88mh5kb@rpi.edu> Followup-To: poster Sender: tale@cs.rpi.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: cs.rpi.edu Reply-To: zforum-request@prg.oxford.ac.uk Organization: Programming Research Group, Oxford University, UK Date: 30 May 91 04:57:48 GMT Approved: tale@rpi.edu Lines: 246 ************************* * SECOND CALL FOR VOTES * ************************* This is the SECOND call for votes for the creation of the newsgroup comp.specification.z. This includes a list of people who have voted so far. Please check that you are on the list if you think you have voted. Please read this article carefully before voting. The proposed newsgroup is as follows: NAME: comp.specification.z STATUS: unmoderated PURPOSE: Discussion concerning with the formal specification notation Z. For the complete charter, motivation, etc., please see below. VOTING PROCEDURE: Send a message to with a subject line consisting of one of the lines below: yes for comp.specification.z no for comp.specification.z You may include a comment as a message if you like. Any unambiguous vote will be accepted, but any message with "if"s attached to the vote itself will be rejected. The voting period ends at 23:59 GMT on Saturday, 15th June. Your vote must be received before then to be counted. COMMENTS: The guidelines for successful creation of a new newsgroup require 100 more YES votes than NO votes, and that the YES votes be at least 2/3 of all valid votes cast. CHARTER, MOTIVATION, ETC.: Charter: Comp.specification.z is intended to handle messages concerned with the formal specification notation Z. Z, based on set theory and first order predicate logic, has been developed at the Programming Research Group (PRG) at Oxford University for well over a decade. It is now used by industry as part of the software (and hardware) development process in both the UK and the US. It is currently undergoing standardization. Comp.specification.z would provide a convenient forum for messages concerned with recent developments and the use of Z. Motivation: Comp.specification is currently the main location for messages concerned with Z on USENET. However there is also a healthy mailing list for discussion on topics concerning Z, known as Z FORUM, which is run entirely separately at present. This was started in 1986 as an electronic newsletter by Ruaridh Macdonald at RSRE, Malvern, UK. Since last year it has been run as a moderated mailing list by Jonathan Bowen at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory. Currently there are 195 subscribers from all over the world, including Europe, the US, Australia and Japan; the number of subscribers grows weekly. Many of the addresses are local redistribution lists, so the estimated readership is several hundred. So far this year there have been c70 messages (i.e., around 200 messages per year); I would expect this rate rise with the larger readership that a newsgroup would provide. Moderation: I would suggest that the newsgroup should be unmoderated. In the past year, I have found that the vast majority of messages for Z FORUM have been relevant and have been sent out unedited. This would also make discussion on the newsgroup easier. Mailing list: I would be willing to maintain the Z FORUM mailing list and cross-post articles between comp.specification.z and the mailing list for those whose do not have access to USENET news. This applied particularly to our industrial subscribers who we wish to encourage. Archive: There is a mail-based electronic archive server at the PRG which contains all the back-issues and messages on Z FORUM, as well as a selection of other Z-related files. I would plan to continue to archive messages on "comp.specification.z" on this server. (Send a message containing the command "help" to for further information.) MASS ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF VOTERS If your name does not appear in the list below, your vote has not been received. Please follow the voting and addressing instructions carefully. Duplicate votes will be eliminated, so please resubmit your vote if necessary. List of voters, 12 noon, Wednesday 29 May: agoodloe@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Alwyn Goodloe) ajos@tardis.cs.ed.ac.uk ALLEN@BIO-MEDICAL-PHYSICS.ABERDEEN.AC.UK Andrew Martin Andrew P. Black Andy Gravell Andy.Gordon@cl.cam.ac.uk Anthony Hall anthony@cs.uq.oz.au Arne Skou Arnulf Mester barry@loki.une.oz.au (Barry Wilks) BERTRAND IBRAHIM BILL MILAM Bob Fields Bob Weissman bourd@cps.msu.edu BOYD@VAX1.ELECTRICAL-ENGINEERING.MANCHESTER.AC.UK Brad Broom brendan@cs.uq.oz.au Cal Taylor cdr@AMD.com (Carl Rigney) Christian S. Collberg Christopher Dodge Cliff B Jones Clive Tong Dan_Jacobson@ATT.com davec@cs.uq.oz.au David Brazier David Brownbridge David Lester David Seal david@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.gov (David Robinson) deby@cs.utwente.nl (Rolf de By) DODGE@BIO-MEDICAL-PHYSICS.ABERDEEN.AC.UK Don Sannella dsimon@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Derron Simon) elkassas@eb.ele.tue.nl (sherif el kassas) Elspeth Cusack endres@ASC.SLB.com ernie@minster.york.ac.uk ewoods@hemel.bull.co.uk (Eoin Woods) frincke@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu (Debbie Frincke) Gavin Finnie Gavin Oddy George Row Glyn Normington goehring@mentor.cc.purdue.edu Graham Dumpleton guttman@linus.mitre.org Haim Kilov Heinrich Nirschl Heinz Saria hinton%gca@uunet.UU.net (Edward Hinton) howard s goodman Iain Craig Iain Fogg ian@cambridge.oracorp.com (Ian Sutherland) ianh@cs.uq.oz.au iglewski@qucis.queensu.ca (Michal Iglewski) Ignacio.Trejos-Zelaya@prg.oxford.ac.uk J Eric Townsend Jacob Gore jbwords@winvmj.vnet.ibm.com Jeffrey Thomas Jeremy Wilson Jim Tubman Jim.Grundy@cl.cam.ac.uk John Bromell John McHugh John.Nicholls@prg.oxford.ac.uk Johnstone_MN@cc.curtin.edu.au JON@GAFFER.RAD.WASHINGTON.edu (Jon Jacky) Jonathan Hammond Jonathan Moffett Jonathan.Bowen@prg.oxford.ac.uk Joseph Gil kae@itd.dsto.oz.au (Katherine Eastaughffe) Karel De Vlaminck kebera@alzabo.ocunix.on.ca (Krishna E. Bera) Kevin.Lano@prg.oxford.ac.uk KI Kim DeVaughn king@cs.uq.oz.au Kjetil Wiekhorst J|rgensen kjones@src.dec.com (Kevin Jones) lippe@serc.nl (Ernst Lippe) lucyc@softway.sw.oz.au (Lucy Chubb) Luke Wildman mackac@infonode.ingr.com (Audrey C Mack) Martin Fraenzle martins@spectrum.cs.unsw.oz.au (Martin Schwenke) Mayer Schwartz Michael Benjamin michaelr@softway.sw.oz.au (Michael Rourke) Michel Lemoine Mike Godfrey Mike.Spivey@prg.oxford.ac.uk nic Nigel Ward Paul Swatman PAV_HALL@VAX.ACS.OPEN.AC.UK peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu (Leonard J. Peirce) Pete Natali pete@minster.york.ac.uk Peter Hancock Phil Stocks Phil Weiss Phil.Richards@prg.oxford.ac.uk Philippe Massonet pjm@pandanus.ntu.edu.au (Phil Maker) pjw@minster.york.ac.uk punisher@daimi.aau.dk R.J. Stroud ramki@shakti.ernet.in (Rama Krishna) rar@ads.com (Bob Riemenschneider) rduke@cs.uq.oz.au rhys@cs.uq.oz.au Richard Taylor Rob Turner Rod Bark rose@cs.uq.oz.au rthomson@dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson) Ruaridh Macdonald rudolf@curano.imp.com (Rudolf Kuenzli) Sascha Wildner saxena%bronze%motcid@uunet.UU.net (Garurank P. Saxena) schaller@hsi86.hsi.com (Dave V. Schaller) sean@aipna.ed.ac.uk sigurd@eik.ii.uib.no (Sigurd Meldal) Simon Shaw simon@cambridge.oracorp.com (Simon Foley) sitaram@cs.washington.edu (Sitaram Raju) smith@cs.uq.oz.au Soren Larsen srlm@di0001.ufpe.anpe.br Stephen Karamatos Stephen.Brien@prg.oxford.ac.uk Steve Fagg straub@cs.UMD.edu (Pablo A. Straub) tar@math.ksu.edu (Tim Ramsey) terry%apiary@uunet.UU.net (Terry Bush) Tim Phillips timc@cs.man.ac.uk Timothy J. Gleeson Timothy VanFosson Tony Rush Trevor King Trevor Nash vdvoort@cs.utwente.nl (Mark van de Voort) wang@minster.york.ac.uk wendy@cs.uq.oz.au -- Jonathan Bowen, Programming Research Group, Oxford University Computing Laboratory.