xml-dev - Re: W3C process getting bumpy?

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

At 03:23 PM 5/12/00 -0400, Ann Navarro wrote:
>>Last Call ends, but I don't think I've seen the other drafts drop back from
>>Last Call to regular working draft before moving on up to CR.
>
>Last Calls are for show stopping problems. If one is found, and significant
>changes are made, it's entirely possible to go back to WD (to get a sense
>of what's been changed), before going to another LC. Given earlier
>mutterings here, I'd have thought an earlier look would be welcome, not
>fodder for suspicion. 

It isn't necessarily 'fodder for suspicion', but it's certainly 'fodder for
confusion'. The language in the status sections of P3P and XML-Signature
raises flags because they say:

1) These are not last call drafts - there is no date for the end of last call

2) Plans to move from here to CR/PR:
"This call addresses the comments received during the Last Call period,
which ended April 30, 2000. A revised version of this specification is
expected to advance toward W3C Recommendation status after two
interoperable implementations have been demonstrated." (P3P)

"This specification of the IETF/W3C XML Signature Working Group follows the
XML Signature Last Call and attempts to address all last call comments sent
to the list and those issues discussed at the April meeting. This version
should be the last before the document is proposed as a Proposed Draft and
Candidate Recommendation." (XML-Signature)

The first of those may mean that there will be another last call draft
before CR/PR, but the second seems to explicitly rule it out.

Add to that a DOM CR with no end date and unspecified 'coordination
issues', and outsiders are left wondering what's going on with W3C process.
 It may well just be communication issues, but it's an odd cluster of
communication issues and at least worth asking about.  

Hopefully Amsterdam will help sort a lot of this out, but those few of us
outsiders watching the W3C have a right to be confused, I think.


Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
Cookies / Sharing Bandwidth
http://www.simonstl.com

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