[SCL] Re: [CL] CL web page

[Pat Hayes]

>After attending some meetings where there's considerable confusion 
>about CL vs. SCL and the various documents floating around (I'm just 
>reporting perceptions), I wanted to try to clean some of it up. I 
>can now post documents to the CL web page 
>http://philebus.tamu.edu/cl/index.html, so I'd like some opinions on 
>how to organize the ISO stuff.

My view of the matter is that SCL was, and is, an ad-hoc effort by a 
small bunch of scruffy academics with no particular official 
standing, which I convened a couple of years ago. CL is an ISO 
standardization proposal. The initial draft of CL is based on the 
then-current draft of SCL, but that is the only point of official 
contact. My own role, and intention in forming the SCL group, was to 
get the thing basically written, and then to hand it off to someone 
else (you :-) to get through the ISO standard process, so I consider 
that task to be (almost) finished.

This seems vividly clear to me, but if anyone wants it spelled out in 
more detail I can do so off-line.

CL may get morphed by the ISO process in various ways, and the SCL 
group might do various things, or not, as it pleases us, and there is 
no constraint on either of them to conform to the other in the 
future, though naturally it would probably be best if they kept in 
reasonably close touch.

>First of all, there will soon be (if there isn't already) two 
>distinct projects -- the ISO standard and the W3C standard

Right now, there is no W3C activity (that I am aware of) connected 
with CL or SCL, so until there is, it might be more politic to not 
refer to the W3C.

>; of course, we want to keep the tech content in sync as much as 
>possible. For convenience, I've informally called the ISO effort 
>"Common Logic" and the W3C effort "SCL" (with appropriate 
>explanations). Thoughts on this?

See above. Basically, please don't refer to the W3C effort as there 
is no W3C effort. Or at any rate, don't refer to it until you hear 
about it from someone at the W3C. The chances of it, even if it comes 
into existence, being called "SCL" are, I would guess, remote. There 
are powerful interests, with strong influence over W3C activities, 
who are firmly opposed to various aspects of the CL design, and will 
work energetically to prevent anything like CL being adopted as a W3C 
standard. I do not have the energy, or taste for stupid political 
arguments, to oppose them more than I already have done.

>Second, the ISO effort is nearing the end of its informal stage. 
>Oddly enough, as a working draft, it can be distributed completely, 
>but once it is proposed for approval as a committee draft (CD), its 
>distribution is more restricted, to "experts" for their opinions. 
>Any reader of this can qualify as an expert for this purpose. This 
>means that future drafts (starting around June 1, see my other note) 
>cannot be posted on the Web; they can, however, be emailed by me to 
>anyone I deem an "expert" for their opinion.

However, the future of a current draft is not necessarily a future 
draft. In particular, I have not, and will not, assign copyright over 
anything I have written, or will write, to the ISO (or anyone else, 
for that matter, unless they agree to distribute it freely, eg on a 
website, with my name on it, basically under the GNU licence or 
something similar). For these purposes I consider the CL draft - the 
Word document - to be written by you, Harry.

Pat


>
>Harry
>
>_______________________________________________
>CL mailing list
>CL at philebus.tamu.edu
>http://philebus.tamu.edu/mailman/listinfo/cl


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