User talk:Dcoetzee/Wikicode/Specification

This proposal is worthwhile and I think some such is overdue. Lots of work, but .... I see a potential problem however. In the interest of doing a really good job, there will surely be here the dreaded committee effect. Accretion of feature after beloved feature until the result is the camel designed by the horse design committee. This being WP, where all is hostage to all, I can't think of a solution.

Wirthian feature parsimony is fine in many respects, but not ideally suited for instant transparency. C character parsimony is certainly not. COBOLic verbosity is self-defeating. And so on. There may not be an ideal examplar amongst real languages.

The proposal as it exists now is admirable. Best possible, certainly not -- there can be no way to identify it even if we had one. Perhaps a reasonable way would be to have an open period, followed by a vote, followed by a discussion changes until another vote. And repeat.

Sort of like Linus does with the kernel. But, who will bell the cat by taking the Linus role? The vote procedure at least has the virtue of precedent here on WP.

Comment? ww 22:54, 6 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]