[cdr-devel] Some changes to the Common Lisp Document Repository.

[Pascal Costanza]

Hello everybody,

Based on the constructive feedback we have got on the CDR process so  
far, we have made some changes to CDR as follows.

+ First, due to the fact that the CDR process has been described as  
CDR 0 which has already been finalized, strictly speaking we aren't  
allowed to make changes to CDR anymore. We have solved this by  
resubmitting the CDR process itself as CDR 4. You can find the new  
version at http://cdr.eurolisp.org/document/4/ together with the  
changes compared to CDR 0 (which are also described below).

Since we expect more suggestions for improvement in the near future,  
we use an exceptionally long initial period for CDR 4 until November  
1, 2007. This allows us to make changes as we go along. At the same  
time, the CDR process in use will already be CDR 4. This means that  
the CDR process for submitted CDRs until then will be somewhat  
unstable, but we think that this gives us the advantage of being able  
to experiment a little such that the final result will hopefully be a  
better tested process.

Consider this equivalent to the bootstrapping of a metacircular  
software architecture, or to the development of any new piece of  
software for that matter, where you have to test and change things as  
you go as well. ;)


+ We have added more details about submission of accompanying  
material, especially with regard to licenses that give us the right  
to publish it at the CDR website and related publications. We forgot  
about this issue in CDR 0.


+ We have added a section where we ask authors and submitters to  
provide rationales for changes they have made during the initial  
period. From now on, we also intend to add archives of previous  
versions of a CDR for better traceability of such changes.


+ We have added a mailing list cdr-discuss - see http://common- 
lisp.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cdr-discuss for the mailing list  
page. This mailing list is supposed to be used for discussions about  
specific CDRs. This is especially useful when CDRs are in their  
initial period, but may also be useful afterwards. The already  
existing cdr-devel is purely for discussions about issues related to  
CDR itself (that go beyond the scope of what is described in CDR 0  
and CDR 4).


We hope that these changes address the suggestions we have got so far.


Best,
Pascal

-- 
Pascal Costanza, mailto:pc at p-cos.net, http://p-cos.net
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Programming Technology Lab
Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium