PWG Mail Archive: PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxym

PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron

From: Hastings, Tom N (hastings@cp10.es.xerox.com)
Date: Thu Jan 30 2003 - 18:24:41 EST

  • Next message: Wagner,William: "RE: PWG> "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron"

    Here is why I think that "Draft Standard" is an oxymoron. Draft is too
    fleeting. Standard is meant to be more stable.

    So I looked up the word "Draft" in the dictionary. Webster's Seventh
    Collegiate Dictionary says:

    "a preliminary sketch, outline, or version".

    We all use the word "draft" (or "working draft") to mean the document that
    we update rapidly to get to a version that we all consider stable enough to
    have a Last Call.

    So one of the appealing suggestions made at today's call was to just remove
    section 3.4 Draft Standard and have only 3.4 Proposed Standard and 3.6
    Standard. Both have to have a series of drafts to be reviewed to lead up to
    being an approved Proposed Standard or an approved Standard. And both need
    to have a draft that is considered good enough to both trying a Last Call
    and then the Last Call has to actually pass.

    I think much of our trouble is terminology, so fixing the terminology, and
    deleting a step seems to be a good thing to do and is NOT abandoning the
    process or overturning turnips.

    Tom

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jan 30 2003 - 18:25:01 EST