On Thu, 2002-11-28 at 14:59, Michael Lazzaro wrote: > But my worries are that we could not keep P6L sufficiently focused, > resulting in an even *bigger* tangle of threads; that we can't really > *have* the discussions without posting the proposed documentation too; > and that P6L would not respond to the more dedicated authors' proddings > for NO REALLY, DECIDE THIS NOW OR WE CAN'T MOVE ON. The level of detail > needed is quite tedious, I'm not sure how many people on P6L would be OK > with having the list be used for that level of fussiness. (?) > > So I, for one, am open to suggestions. We clearly shouldn't have the > same language discussions in two places, but at the same time we clearly > must have better-organized discussions than we've historically been > doing on p6l, in order for them to be of any use to the doc authors. >
I think p6l will continue to be the shaking-out ground for new ideas, hashing out the A&E docs, and in general trying to present big picture issues to Larry et al. Yes, it doesn't get detailed. Yes, it doesn't stay focused. The ramifications and scope that they're working in often affects other parts of the language, with the resultant changes. (I had started documenting things early on, and the changes were going faster than I could make updates.) Besides, the devil's in the details, and who likes dancing with the devil? And that's where I think p6d steps in. The big and middle pictures have been painted, the directions has been set. If there's a question of direction, or a change of direction, throw it back. I'm not saying don't make decisions, I'm saying people shouldn't be surprised with what comes out of it. The design team shouldn't need to oversee day-to-day, just tweak the docs you produce. The summaries shouldn't need to report on the weekly discussions, just report on what you've released. Much like the old sub-lists would step away to discuss some particular topic head-to-toe, p6d should discuss every topic toe-to-toe. It'll evolve, but until then, there'll be the occasional nudge. :-) -- Bryan C. Warnock bwarnock@(gtemail.net|raba.com)
