Re: [xtm-wg] Status of Core Deliverables document

[Murray Altheim <altheim@eng.sun.com>]

Steve Pepper wrote:
[...] 
> Despite heroic efforts, the editing team (the Gang of Four: S&M&M&S)
> were not able to complete the spec. Not only that, they also discovered
> what they felt were a number of serious bugs in the results of the
> Dallas meeting, and made extensive revisions to the DTD accordingly.
> (In fact, the belief that such bugs existed and the desire to iron them
> out through maraton con calls was probably the reason why they were not
> able to complete the spec.)

Whether or not the remark was made in humour, I find it insulting and
rather outrageous that the four editors of the XTM specification are being
compared to radical members of the Chinese Communist Party. Such rhetoric,
taken with some of your other remarks, is counterproductive and seems to 
deliberately set up a hostile atmosphere, especially so with our next 
meeting only days away. Why? Is your point to denegrate the work that has
been done and destabilize the AG to better serve your ability to alter the
specification, to remove the "Gang of Four", or to better promote the ISO 
version over the products of TopicMaps.Org? I ponder this and really don't
understand. I have in the past considered you among the voices of reason.

Part of the reason why we were not able to complete the specifications
was that commitments made by some our members on providing input were
not met by the deadlines. These deadlines were made clearly and were 
even extended as much as possible in order to allow for such input. 

I mean, really. Give me a break. We worked our asses off and would have 
*loved* to have been provided a *finished* Conceptual Model and the 
necessary textual input that we had expected following Dallas. We received
neither, and that's the real reason why the specs aren't finished. As it 
was, we were all near physical collapse by the week of publication. Truth
be told, on Monday night I did collapse, for the first time in my life 
absent some help from alcohol.

The continued move to alter the DTD is also enormously counterproductive.
At what point would you freeze the DTD? February? March? April? Do you
think this will actually settle down? I don't believe it for a minute,
certainly prior to a finished Conceptual Model, which I don't see settling
down any time soon. We either compromise and look forward, or continue to
manipulate both the process and our products.

I'm trying to be optimistic about our Paris meeting, and I hope we can
still finalize the work that has been done with the goal of delivering
something we can all live with, be proud of, and use productively in
furthering this new technology.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim                            <mailto:altheim&#x40;eng.sun.com>
XML Technology Center
Sun Microsystems, Inc., MS MPK17-102, 1601 Willow Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025

      In the evening
      The rice leaves in the garden
      Rustle in the autumn wind
      That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu

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