RFD: comp.lang.perl.tk

Jon Orwant (orwant@fahrenheit-451.media.mit.edu)
Fri, 4 Aug 1995 08:29:46 -0400

[This is the official RFD. I've followed the Creation Guidelines,
which mandate that all discussion should take place on news.groups,
even though that rigs it against the USENETless. -Jon]

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
unmoderated group comp.lang.perl.tk

Proposer: Jon Orwant <orwant@media.mit.edu>

This is a formal request for discussion on the creation of comp.lang.perl.tk,
an unmoderated USENET newsgroup.

This RFD has been posted in accordance with the Guidelines for Newsgroup
Creation. This RFD is being posted to the following relevant newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
comp.lang.perl.misc
...and to the mailing list ptk@wpi.edu

Discussion will take place in news.groups ONLY. Please post follow-ups
to news.groups only.

This is not a call for votes (CFV). Please do not vote now.

RATIONALE

Perl/Tk (also called, in various incarnations, "TkPerl", "pTk" and
"nTk") is an extension for the Perl programming language that enables
programmers to develop X applications.

It's popular. There's a high-volume mailing list devoted to Perl/Tk
(ptk@wpi.edu); the suggestion for this newsgroup arose from that list.

There are probably many people who are interested in Perl/Tk, but have
never heard of the mailing list, or are dissuaded from joining because
of the message volume.

There are probably many people who are only casually interested in Perl/Tk,
and would like to be able to skim a few weeks worth of messages.

There are probably many people who program in Perl, but don't realize
that Perl/Tk exists.

Anticipated objection #1: "My site doesn't have USENET. If the discussions
migrate there, I'll miss out."

Nope!

There will be a news-to-mail gateway courtesy of Ivan Judson
(judson@mcs.anl.gov) and there will be a hypermail gateway at
http://pubweb.bnl.gov/~ptk/
courtesy of Tom Schlagel (schlagel@indy1.ccd.bnl.gov) and Alan Stange.

Both the news-to-mail gateway and the hypermail gateway will be ready
when/if comp.lang.perl.tk is open for business.

Anticipated objection #2: "Hey! Perl/Tk is only in a BETA release.
It doesn't merit its own newsgroup."

Well, true, it is beta. But it's still used by a lot of people.
And comp.lang.perl.tk need not be synonymous with the Perl/Tk package,
but rather "using X from Perl via Tk."

Anticipated objection #3: "I don't like the name. It shouldn't
be comp.lang.perl.tk, but comp.lang.perl.modules.tk, or
comp.lang.perl.modules-tk."

This is an appropriate topic for the Discussion that is being
Requested. A rough poll indicates that most people are happy with the
comp.lang.perl.tk name. While we wouldn't want *every* module to
occupy its own newsgroup, a few of the largest modules merit
newsgrouphood.

If you don't like the name comp.lang.perl.tk, you should
vote AGAINST the proposal when the Call for Votes (CFV) occurs
in three weeks.

CHARTER

comp.lang.perl.tk will serve as a forum for:

o questions/answers/discussion about Perl/Tk
o getting/installing/porting Perl/Tk
o development of applications in Perl/Tk
o development of Perl/Tk itself

as well any other topic related to "using X from Perl via Tk."
The newsgroup is NOT for discussion about Tcl, except as it relates
to Tk and/or X.

Novice questions, code snippets, etc. are encouraged.

PROCEDURE

After a discussion period of 21 days, if there are no overwhelming
objections to the formation of comp.lang.perl.tk, a CFV (Call For
Votes) will be posted to the same groups as this RFD. The voting
period will be as outlined in the Guidelines (a minimum of 21 and not
more than 31 days). If the vote passes, the group will be
created. A passing vote requires a 2/3 majority, and at least 100
more "YES" votes than "NO" votes. Voting procedures will be
documented in the CFV, and the vote will be conducted by a neutral
third party. Further details on the Guidelines and the process by
which this newsgroup proposal is being conducted are available in the
news.newgroups FAQ archive (via anonymous FTP to ftp://rtfm.mit.edu).