Re: Scheme for programmers book

<srfi-editor mode="soapbox">

I am  about the attributions here. I've tried to fix them up
but probably gotten it wrong.

Michael Erdmann <michael.erdmann@snafu.de> writes:
> David Van Horn wrote: 
> This is withdrawn.

1) call/cc (or properly call-with-current-continuation) is most
certainly *not* withdrawn, although the idea gets discussed from time
to time.

2) SRFI-12, although withdrawn, is still a valid source of information
about the issues involved, and in fact, the reference implementation is
adequate for use under controlled circumstances.
 
> The status of this one is finalize.

Now for the lecture on the distinction between 'Withdrawn' and 'Final'
states - and no, this isn't adequately discussed in either the SRFI
FAQ or the Process document.

A SRFI moves into 'Withdrawn' state for one of two reasons.

1 (active) - the Author feels that the SRFI has turned out to
be flawed or otherwise not worth fixing and asks for it to
be withdrawn

2 (passive) - the Author doesn't ever get around to finishing
the job of finishing the specification and/or reference
implementation and the editors presumptively withdraw it.

We have been fairly lax about enforcing the process time periods
because we greatly prefer reason 1 to reason 2 for withdrawals (and
the merits of *that* decision are the topic of a whole 'nother
discussion). However, the point is that for one reason or the other
'Withdrawn' SRFIs are less valuable than 'Final' SRFIs only in that
the Author hasn't said that the SRFI is 'finished'[1]. Given that there
is no compliance mechanism, and no implementation enforcement to the
SRFI process, this is not a big difference. I regularly use SRFI-32
(Sort Libraries) even though it is withdrawn because Olin Shivers'
preliminary work is good enough for many people's finished (and
because Olin has vanished from the face of the earth so there is no
one left to love his bastard children ;)

david rush

1 - It is worth pointing out that this is also why we do not maintain
'pre-SRFI' documents. Even withdrawn SRFIs have value because the
ideas are supposed to be relatively mature.

</srfi-editor>
--
Relentless Pursuit of the non-existent by the clueless armed with the
unworkable is bound to turn up something sooner or later.
-- Pete McCarthy in _The Road to McCarthy_