1st CFV: comp.lang.ml

Following the required discussion period, in which consensus appears to
have been reached, this is the first call for votes for the creation of
comp.lang.ml. This note contains information about the proposed group and
voting instructions. Please read the entire post before responding. In
particular, please read the "How to Vote" section before responding.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        1st CALL FOR VOTES


Proposed Newsgroup: comp.lang.ml
------------------
                            Type: Moderated
                            ----
                  Moderator: Greg Morrisett, Carnegie Mellon, jgmorris@cs.cmu.edu
                  --------- (submission address to be announced.)
              Description: Discussion about the family of ML languages including
              ----------- but not limited to Standard ML, CAML, Caml-light, and
                                              Lazy ML.


Charter:
-------
    Comp.lang.ml is a moderated newsgroup exclusively for discussion
    of ML. ML is a family of advanced programming languages with [usually]
    functional control structures, strict semantics, a strict polymorphic type
    system, and parametrized modules. It includes Standard ML, Lazy ML,
    CAML, CAML Light, and various research languages. Implementations are
    available on many platforms, including PCs, mainframes, most models of
    workstation, multi-processors and supercomputers. ML has many
    thousands of users, is taught at many universities (and is the first
    programming language taught at some).


    Topics for discussion would include (but are not limited to):
      * general ML enquiries or discussion
      * general interpretation of the definition of Standard ML
      * applications and use of ML
      * announcements of general interest (e.g. compiler releases)
      * discussion of semantics including sematics of extensions based on ML
      * discussion about library structure and content
      * tool development
      * comparison/contrast with other languages
      * implementation issues, techniques and algorithms including extensions
              based on ML


Moderation Guidelines:
----------------------
    The moderator will maintain and post weekly and monthly frequently
    asked questions (FAQ) lists. Moderation will be done according to
    the following guidelines:


        1. An article that has no relevance to ML will be rejected by the
              moderator. However, the moderator will attempt to tell the
              poster a more appropriate place for the article.


        2. An article might be rejected if the poster asks a question that
              is answered by the FAQ lists. However, the moderator will forward
              the relevant portion(s) of the FAQ answers to the poster.


        3. The moderator reserves the right to trim down quotations of
              previous articles and to reject articles consisting essentially
              of quotations.


        4. The moderator reserves the right to send a "poorly" written article
              back to the poster, requesting that it be re-written.


        5. All other articles will be forwarded by the moderator.


        6. The moderator might add his/her own comments at the end of an
              article, such as [See the Commentary, pp.123-125] or
              [This question has been asked several times in the past, and
              never got an answer.]


Moderator Changes:
------------------
    Guidelines for the removal or change of a moderator are as follows:


        1. An RFD on the removal of the moderator must be posted to
              news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, and comp.lang.ml.
              with the follow-ups sent to news.groups.


        2. Should there be a consensus that a vote is appropriate, a
              CFV will be issued by a third party, to last not less than
              two weeks and not more than 30 days. This ballot will include
              the following options:


                                        a. Should the moderator be removed? (Y/N)
                                        b. The new moderator should be: (names)


        3. If more than 2/3 of the voters agree that the moderator should
              be removed, and there are no more than 100 no votes, then the
              top name in section b becomes the new moderator. Each ballot
              can contain a vote for one and only one new moderator.


Justification:
-------------
    There is currently a group for ML in the alt hierarchy, alt.lang.ml.
    This has the disadvantages of any alt group: narrow distribution
    (especially outside the US, where much ML development goes on) and
    fast expiration. Some discussion of ML has gone on in
    comp.lang.functional and in comp.lang.misc. An ML-specific newsgroup
    would concentrate these postings and provide a focus for people
    seeking information about or discussion of the language.


    There is also a moderated worldwide mailing list for Standard ML users
    maintained at Carnegie Mellon University and a mailing list for CAML
    users maintained at INRIA. There are now several thousand readers of
    these lists. Currently several messages pass through these lists
    each week. We do not propose the abandoment of these lists, but a
    moderated newsgroup would take most of the traffic from each of these
    lists and would provide a new forum for questions general to the
    family of ML languages (not just SML or CAML).


    People who cannot or do not want to read the newsgroup, can subscribe
    to the SML-LIST. As maintainer of the list, I will cross-post messages
    from the newsgroup to the mailing list and vice-versa.


    We have chosen "comp.lang.ml" as a name, patterned after other newsgroups
    that discuss programming languages, such as "comp.lang.scheme". We have
    chosen the ".ml" suffix to remind people that the newsgroup is open
    to all dialects of ML. While some readers might mistakenly assume
    ".ml" stands for "machine language" or "machine learning", the moderator
    will prevent irrelevant posts from reaching readers and the FAQ lists
    will clear up any confusion.


Voting Period:
-------------
    Votes will be taken from 08:00:00 EST, February 23, 1993
    until 23:59:59 EST, March 20, 1993.


How to Vote:
-----------
    To vote "Yes", send mail to "jgmorris=yes@cs.cmu.edu".


    To vote "No", send mail to "jgmorris=no@cs.cmu.edu".


    Votes sent to these addresses are differentiated by mailing address
    _only_; message contents and subject lines are ignored since the
    votes are processed by an automated script.


    If your mailer cannot handle one of these addresses, send your
    vote to "jgmorris@cs.cmu.edu" making sure to clearly specify whether
    you vote for or against the proposed newsgroup. Use the following
    format in your message body:


        "I vote [Yes/No] for comp.lang.ml."


    If your message is ambiguous, it will not be counted (though I will
    attempt to return your message to you, asking for an unambiguous vote.)


    Your vote will be acknowledged by email.


Reminder of Voting Rules:
-------------------------
    - One vote per person. If you vote more than once, only the most
        recent vote will be counted.


    - Votes must be mailed to one of the above addresses. No proxy
        voting, forwarding, etc. Posted votes (to any newsgroup or
        mailing list) will not be counted.


    - I will not be able to discuss the vote results until after the
        poll closes, so please do not ask how the vote is going.


    - Votes received outside of the voting period will be ignored.


Thanks and remember that your vote counts!
--
-Greg Morrisett
  Carnegie Mellon Univ.
  jgmorris@cs.cmu.edu
--

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