Is there a design rationale document?

[ungar at mac.com]

Many thanks. If there is any way I can be of any help, please don't  
hesitate to ask. I would be delighted.

- David


On Nov 12, 2007, at 3:02 PM, Jeff Dyer wrote:

>
> On 11/12/07 2:17 PM, ungar at mac.com wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> Thank you for adding me to this list.
>>
>> I have just finished reading the language proposal spec, and was
>> struck by the richness of the additions to the language. I haven't
>> been following this effort at all; and so thank people in advance for
>> their patience with my ignorance. Now that I've seen the spec, there
>> are two more documents that would really help my understanding:
>
> I'm guessing you've read the overview whitepaper. No official spec  
> exists
> yet.
>
>>
>> I was wondering if there exists a document that sets out the language
>> design goals and the connection between each feature and the goals it
>> supports? In my mind's eye, I picture a table of goals along one  
>> axis,
>> and features on the other, with entries filled in where a given
>> feature helps or hinders a given goal. Does this document exist? If
>> not, would it be helpful if it did?
>
> Such a document doesn't exist. I have been thinking that something  
> like this
> should be written to help people understand how the individual  
> features fit
> together to make the whole language work.
>
> I'll take a crack at this.
>
>>
>> Also, sometimes a feature can, in combination with some other  
>> language
>> feature, create undesirable interactions. Again, in my mind's eye, I
>> picture a table with all of the features in each axis, and the  
>> entries
>> describe how each pair of features either reinforce, interfere with,
>> or have no effect on each other. Does such a document exist? And  
>> would
>> it be helpful if it did?
>
> Good idea too.
>
> The reference implementation is a kind of empirical version of this.  
> But I
> agree, an abstract presentation would give a nice overview of what  
> we, as
> the designers, believe to be true about the feature interactions.
>
> Jd
>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> - David
>>
>>
>> PS: Is there a list of the original committee members anywhere? I
>> haven't run across that.
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>