Jonathan.Bowen@prg.oxford.ac.uk (Jonathan Bowen) (04/23/91)
Charter: Comp.specification.z is intended to handle messages concerned with the formal specification notation Z. Z, based on set theory and first order predicate logic, has been developed at the Programming Research Group (PRG) at Oxford University for well over a decade. It is now used by industry as part of the software (and hardware) development process in both the UK and the US. It is currently undergoing standardization. Comp.specification.z would provide a convenient forum for messages concerned with recent developments and the use of Z. Motivation: Comp.specification is currently the main location for messages concerned with Z on USENET. However there is also a healthy mailing list for discussion on topics concerning Z, known as Z FORUM, which is run entirely separately at present. This was started in 1986 as an electronic newsletter by Ruaridh Macdonald at RSRE, Malvern, UK. Since last year it has been run as a moderated mailing list by Jonathan Bowen at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory. Currently there are 185 subscribers from all over the world, including Europe, the US, Australia and Japan; the number of subscribers grows weekly. Many of the addresses are local redistribution lists, so the estimated readership is several hundred. So far this year there have been 50 messages; I would expect the rate of messages to rise with the larger readership that a newsgroup would provide. Moderation: I would suggest that the newsgroup should be unmoderated. In the past year, I have found that the vast majority of messages for Z FORUM have been relevant and have been sent out unedited. This would also make discussion on the newsgroup easier. Mailing list: I would be willing to maintain the Z FORUM mailing list and cross-post articles between comp.specification.z and the mailing list for those whose do not have access to USENET news. This applied particularly to our industrial subscribers who we wish to encourage. Archive: There is a mail-based electronic archive server at the PRG which contains all the back-issues and messages on Z FORUM, as well as a selection of other Z-related files. I would plan to continue to archive messages on "comp.specification.z" on this server. (Send a message containing the command "help" to <archive-server@prg.oxford.ac.uk> for further information.) -- Jonathan Bowen, <Jonathan.Bowen@prg.oxford.ac.uk> Programming Research Group, Oxford University Computing Laboratory.