Talking from the perspective of an end user only, I would like to make two suggestions.
1. Decision Flowchart. It would be nice to have a flowchart (or something similar) that roughly depicts the decision process for feature proposals. This might clarify discussions a lot. I'm not so much thinking about who makes what decision when, but more about giving answers to questions like the following and how depicting they influence the decision process: Can this feature be implemented in current R6RS? Can it be implemented efficiently in current R6RS? Does it require major changes to existing implementations? Will it break R6RS code? Can it be implemented on all platforms? Does it enhance interoperability? Does the feature proposal presume a way of being implemented? ---and so on 2. Cross-Platform/Cross-Implementation GUI Library. From my end-user perspective, the biggest problem is currently the lack of an interoperable GUI widget library. I agree that this is not a matter of the core language, but should be an SRFI. However, it seems to me that the way the SRFI process currently works makes it virtually impossible that a concrete proposal by one or just a few implementors would ever be accepted. Therefore I think it would be wise to start a group/decision process for developing a cross-platform, reasonably 'schemeish' GUI widget API specification separately and in addition to, but perhaps somehow affiliated with the R7RS process. I know that for many applications GUIs are unimportant, but also believe that for the success of Scheme as a 'mainstream', multi-purpose language having a standardized GUI library is indispensable in the long run. I am aware that lack of volunteers might be a problem---nevertheless, now is the time to think about this (And don't tell me Scheme is not a 'mainstream', multi-purpose language. I prefer it for end-user applications over Java or CL anytime, as long as the required features are supported by the respective Scheme implementation.) Best regards, Erich P.S. When answering to the second suggestion, it is not allowed to use the term 'batteries' ;-) _______________________________________________ r6rs-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.r6rs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/r6rs-discuss
