document history

license

CC BY, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

1 Introduction

WG14’s process (if we can speak of that) to chose, improve and integrate changes into the C standard is sub-optimal with many regards

• it is wasteful, many working hours are spent by many for tasks that could be factorized and left to specific experts
• it is scary, many proposals from the community don’t happen or get lost because we ask people to collect all by themselves: ideas for changes, prior art, wording and to maintain their proposal over many years
• it is loooong, rebooting the discussion on a subject every once a year looses context, looses people and has the target shifting. This is already challenging syntactically because we are asked to refer to a new working draft each time a paper is lucky to make it on the agenda, but even more so semantically because people, opinions and objectives change.

We propose to install a new study group “Wording” that would be consulted in the following situations:

• Advise authors on the wording for papers, depending on their needs:
  • early, for non-members of WG14 to put their ideas in the concrete context of the C standard.
  • as a final help to move from acceptance “in principle” to a final adoption, ready for integration.
• Advise other SG groups about wording issues.
• Advise WG14 on problem spots in the standard that need attention.
• Advise the project editor.
  • For discussions if specific editorial changes need attention in plenary WG meetings (or not).
  • Provide ready-to-apply direct changes to the LaTeX sources in form of branches in the WG14 gitlab.

2 Setup

This SG should be composed of a handful of experienced people who know their way through the standard. Ideally, the project editor would be a member or follow the work of the SG closely.

The SG would meet in telecons as necessary but the main work should be done by producing or modifying documents. Exchange of documents and their revisions happens on the WG14 gitlab in a sub-project of its own, and by using the gitlab issue tracker to nail down problems and integrate suggestions. Using markdown for proposals eases such handling, in particular by allowing to submit changes online with gitlab’s WYSIWYG markdown editor.

A low volume mailing list should be used to discuss principal questions and to dispatch the work between the members.

3 Members

The SG provides services to WG14 on a volunteer base that are only available as its members are willing and able to make time. Currently have agreed to join such a Wording SG:

• Jens Gustedt (proposed chair)
• Alex Celeste
• Joseph Myers