NICE Eiffel Standards Group -- Library Committee Mailing List To post to list: NICE-ESG-Libs@atlanta.twr.com To send mail to the Chairman of the committee: NICE-ESG-Libs-chair@atlanta.twr.com Administrative matters (sign up, unsubscribe, mail problems, etc): NICE-ESG-Libs-request@atlanta.twr.com
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 95 20:01:43 PDT From: bertrand@vienna.eiffel.com (Bertrand Meyer) Subject: NICE-ESG-Libs Digest V1 #256 To: NICE-ESG-Libs@atlanta.twr.com Jason Schroeder seems not to understand that one cannot do DESIGN through politicking. Design is about elegance and quality, not one-vote majorities. The process that he advocates is well known: it leads to ``design by committee'', the process whereby 10 people are sitting around a table, each with 10 pet proposals, and the committee accepts have of them (I'll take yours if you'll take mine). The result is ``standards'' like C++, FORTRAN 9X etc. This will not happen for Eiffel. It is also not appropriate to consider that users have exactly the same rights as implementors. Implementors have a duty to reject proposals that (although they might appeal to some users) would endanger the efficiency of implementations. For that reason many serious committees give implementors a veto right. Such a rule is stated very precisely, for example, in the Simula standard. More generally, I just cannot understand Jason Schroeder's hostility to the role of ISE within NICE. We gave Eiffel to NICE; all that we are asking is that NICE does not suddenly change the language and library in ways that are meant to make it impossible for ISE to implement them. That would be a strange way to thank us. Finally, I will talk to whom I want, when we want, where we want and about what we want. I live in a democratic country and am a citizen of a democratic country, and do not need anyone's permission to talk. -- Bertrand Meyer
