[sc34wg3] Thoughts on the RM

[Sam Hunting]

> Steve Pepper writes:

<slash>

> > I'm sorry. I really do believe there may be some useful
> > insights in there somewhere, but either I am stupid, or they
> > are so well hidden that a LOT more work needs to be done
> > before the RM can be offered to the world.

No apology for this is necessary, in my view.

Reactions to the TMM draft have fallen along a spectrum. The UK delegation
was able to offer quite detailed criticism in N0407, especially of clause
4, and Martin Bryan has promised us that we have much more to look forward
too in London. ;-)

Members of the US and the Norwegian delegations, and other interested
parties to whom the text has been "offered", have also found the draft at
least readable enough to offer criticism and request clarification, on and
off the lists. Still others have, indeed, found it too hard going to be
useful.

So clearly we have not, yet, succeeded in making the TMM draft the basis
of a consensus, and whether or not substantive issues remain, there are
editorial issues that must be addressed. And it remains the case that the
only way to address editorial issues and achieve consensus is through
detailed, published, clause-by-clause engagement with the actual texts by
the experts in the field.

To put this another way:

    I gotta use words when I talk to you
                --TS Eliot, Sweeney Agonistes

And if we don't know which words give trouble, we can't begin to fix the
trouble, let alone address any issues with the substance that the words
embody.

Sam Hunting
eTopicality, Inc.

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