Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: a comprehensible standard
Message-ID: <10345@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jan 88 07:15:02 GMT
References: <7072@brl-smoke.ARPA> <7160@brl-smoke.ARPA> <3932@hoptoad.uucp> <7181@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 30

In article <7181@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
-The issue of difficulty in implementing the specifications correctly
-doesn't bother me much.  It is unlikely that there are more than a few
-hundred people in the world who could reasonably be expected to produce
-a high-quality C implementation anyway, and most of the ones who will
-be (or are) attempting to implement the ANSI C specifications either are
-on the Committee or have sufficient contacts with Committee members who
-can answer questions about some of the subtler points.

Yow!

-If you can suggest improvements in any of the wording in the proposed
-Standard, I would urge that they be sent in as comments during the next
-formal public review period, which should start soon.  It would help to
-make the final Standard as intelligible as possible.  (Even stating that
-you find some topic confusing, unclear, or ambiguous would be helpful.)

Much better.

In fact, it may be that some point is utterly incomprehensible
without some prior knowledge about that point; but because Committee
members and numerous unrelated readers of the draft have that prior
knowledge, none of them have noticed this.  It is particularly
difficult to be both precise and concise when one is very familiar
with a subject and explaining it to those who are the opposite.

So send in those comments!
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris