From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: by margaux.inria.fr, Wed, 24 Feb 93 21:47:03 +0100 Received: from concorde.inria.fr by margaux.inria.fr, Tue, 23 Feb 93 19:50:06 +0100 Received: from VACHE.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU by concorde.inria.fr; Tue, 23 Feb 1993 19:49:56 +0100 Received: from vache.venari.cs.cmu.edu by VACHE.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU id aa18049; 23 Feb 93 13:49:10 EST To: sml-list@CS.CMU.EDU, caml-list@margaux Subject: 1st CFV: comp.lang.ml Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 13:49:06 EST Message-Id: <18047.730493346@VACHE.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU> From: Greg_Morrisett@VACHE.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU Sender: weis@margaux Following the required discussion period, in which consensus appears to have been reached, this is the first call for votes for the creation of comp.lang.ml. This note contains information about the proposed group and voting instructions. Please read the entire post before responding. In particular, please read the "How to Vote" section before responding. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st CALL FOR VOTES Proposed Newsgroup: comp.lang.ml ------------------ Type: Moderated ---- Moderator: Greg Morrisett, Carnegie Mellon, jgmorris@cs.cmu.edu --------- (submission address to be announced.) Description: Discussion about the family of ML languages including ----------- but not limited to Standard ML, CAML, Caml-light, and Lazy ML. Charter: ------- Comp.lang.ml is a moderated newsgroup exclusively for discussion of ML. ML is a family of advanced programming languages with [usually] functional control structures, strict semantics, a strict polymorphic type system, and parametrized modules. It includes Standard ML, Lazy ML, CAML, CAML Light, and various research languages. Implementations are available on many platforms, including PCs, mainframes, most models of workstation, multi-processors and supercomputers. ML has many thousands of users, is taught at many universities (and is the first programming language taught at some). Topics for discussion would include (but are not limited to): * general ML enquiries or discussion * general interpretation of the definition of Standard ML * applications and use of ML * announcements of general interest (e.g. compiler releases) * discussion of semantics including sematics of extensions based on ML * discussion about library structure and content * tool development * comparison/contrast with other languages * implementation issues, techniques and algorithms including extensions based on ML Moderation Guidelines: ---------------------- The moderator will maintain and post weekly and monthly frequently asked questions (FAQ) lists. Moderation will be done according to the following guidelines: 1. An article that has no relevance to ML will be rejected by the moderator. However, the moderator will attempt to tell the poster a more appropriate place for the article. 2. An article might be rejected if the poster asks a question that is answered by the FAQ lists. However, the moderator will forward the relevant portion(s) of the FAQ answers to the poster. 3. The moderator reserves the right to trim down quotations of previous articles and to reject articles consisting essentially of quotations. 4. The moderator reserves the right to send a "poorly" written article back to the poster, requesting that it be re-written. 5. All other articles will be forwarded by the moderator. 6. The moderator might add his/her own comments at the end of an article, such as [See the Commentary, pp.123-125] or [This question has been asked several times in the past, and never got an answer.] Moderator Changes: ------------------ Guidelines for the removal or change of a moderator are as follows: 1. An RFD on the removal of the moderator must be posted to news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, and comp.lang.ml. with the follow-ups sent to news.groups. 2. Should there be a consensus that a vote is appropriate, a CFV will be issued by a third party, to last not less than two weeks and not more than 30 days. This ballot will include the following options: a. Should the moderator be removed? (Y/N) b. The new moderator should be: (names) 3. If more than 2/3 of the voters agree that the moderator should be removed, and there are no more than 100 no votes, then the top name in section b becomes the new moderator. Each ballot can contain a vote for one and only one new moderator. Justification: ------------- There is currently a group for ML in the alt hierarchy, alt.lang.ml. This has the disadvantages of any alt group: narrow distribution (especially outside the US, where much ML development goes on) and fast expiration. Some discussion of ML has gone on in comp.lang.functional and in comp.lang.misc. An ML-specific newsgroup would concentrate these postings and provide a focus for people seeking information about or discussion of the language. There is also a moderated worldwide mailing list for Standard ML users maintained at Carnegie Mellon University and a mailing list for CAML users maintained at INRIA. There are now several thousand readers of these lists. Currently several messages pass through these lists each week. We do not propose the abandoment of these lists, but a moderated newsgroup would take most of the traffic from each of these lists and would provide a new forum for questions general to the family of ML languages (not just SML or CAML). People who cannot or do not want to read the newsgroup, can subscribe to the SML-LIST. As maintainer of the list, I will cross-post messages from the newsgroup to the mailing list and vice-versa. We have chosen "comp.lang.ml" as a name, patterned after other newsgroups that discuss programming languages, such as "comp.lang.scheme". We have chosen the ".ml" suffix to remind people that the newsgroup is open to all dialects of ML. While some readers might mistakenly assume ".ml" stands for "machine language" or "machine learning", the moderator will prevent irrelevant posts from reaching readers and the FAQ lists will clear up any confusion. Voting Period: ------------- Votes will be taken from 08:00:00 EST, February 23, 1993 until 23:59:59 EST, March 16, 1993. How to Vote: ----------- To vote "Yes", send mail to "jgmorris=yes@cs.cmu.edu". To vote "No", send mail to "jgmorris=no@cs.cmu.edu". Votes sent to these addresses are differentiated by mailing address _only_; message contents and subject lines are ignored since the votes are processed by an automated script. If your mailer cannot handle one of these addresses, send your vote to "jgmorris@cs.cmu.edu" making sure to clearly specify whether you vote for or against the proposed newsgroup. Use the following format in your message body: "I vote [Yes/No] for comp.lang.ml." If your message is ambiguous, it will not be counted (though I will attempt to return your message to you, asking for an unambiguous vote.) Your vote will be acknowledged by email. Reminder of Voting Rules: ------------------------- - One vote per person. If you vote more than once, only the most recent vote will be counted. - Votes must be mailed to one of the above addresses. No proxy voting, forwarding, etc. Posted votes (to any newsgroup or mailing list) will not be counted. - I will not be able to discuss the vote results until after the poll closes, so please do not ask how the vote is going. - Votes received outside of the voting period will be ignored. Thanks and remember that your vote counts!