[m-dev.] Remove CVS access to repository.

[Peter Schachte]

On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, Tyson Richard DOWD wrote:

> David Glen JEFFERY wrote:
> > While we are on the subject, are there any other process issues we need to
> > look at?
> 
> A similar review process for design decisions would be good (e.g. you
> propose a feature or change, outline the design it will take, get
> the OK, and then go do it). Obviously this will need to iterate for
> more complex designs.

It would also be a good thing if there were a process whereby *users* could
get items added to to the TODO list, without having to be able to design
them.  Even user complaints/criticisms without any specific request 
or proposal can be taken as a request:  "please fix this problem...."  As
people think about these things, they can add proposed solutions to the TODO
list.  Of course, some user proposals won't fit with the philosophy of the
language; these should be put on a NOTTODO list, or an FAQ.

I know the Mercury system is a university project, and so features are added
by volunteers, and therefore only features that are interesting to an
implementor tend to get added.  Still, having items on the TODO list will
avoid them being raised and discussed repeatedly on the mailing lists, and
maybe someday a user-requested feature will be interesting to some
developer. 

It would help this somewhat if the TODO list were really a hypertext
document, with a brief discussion in the TODO port, and a link to a more
in-depth discussion/design.


-Peter Schachte      URL:  http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~pets/
pets at cs.mu.OZ.AU     PGP:  finger pets at 128.250.37.150 for key
    Do insects spend hours demammaling their programs?