chaynes@IUVAX.CS.INDIANA.EDU (Chris Haynes) (09/20/88)
IEEE Scheme Standardization Working Group SUMMARY OF FIRST MEETING The Working Group on Scheme (IEEE/MSC/P1178) met on July 27, 1988, following the Lisp conference at Snowbird, Utah. There were 30 attendees, including several who are also members of X3J13 and ISO/SC22/WG16. The chair's introductory remarks included the main entries in the PAR and the main features of the IEEE standardization process. Will Clinger reported on the Scheme Report Workshop of July 24th, including proposed differences between the the ``Revised^3 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme'', or R3RS for short, and the forthcoming R4RS. There was concern that a Scheme standard not disrupt ongoing research on Scheme, with general agreement on the following points: (1) The Scheme standard should encourage evolution of the language, including alternate programming styles. (2) The standard is incomplete, so implementations are expected to extended the standard. (3) Early standardization of features should be avoided, so that research on improved features is not curtailed. David Bartley, Chris Hanson, and Jim Miller were elected to edit the standard. The main part of the meeting was general discussion, for the benefit of the editors, of anticipated differences between the Scheme standard and the R4RS. An electronic newsgroup, based at MIT, will be established for technical and administrative communication of the working group. When it is established, its presence will be advertised on the scheme newsgroup with information on how to join the new newsgroup. Transcripts of activity in this group will be periodically mailed to interested parties, upon request to the chair, for the benefit of those without network connections. Full minutes of the meeting will be posted to this newsgroup when it is created. It was concluded that the next meeting should be in January or February at a location and time to be determined by the chair, most likely in Cambridge. The working group anticipates the following time schedule: 6 months -- review of first draft of standard, 12 months -- send approved draft of standard to MSC. -- Chris Haynes (chaynes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu)