

ERR5RS: extending the R5RS (Scheme R6RS dissenters)  - nickb
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.scheme/browse_thread/thread/758f28cdc6058cf6

======
euccastro
For those just joining the party, some background:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803>

------
dfranke
These don't sound like dissenters to me; more like just trying to design a
R5.5RS to ease the transition to R6.

~~~
euccastro
I think you got this impression from William Clinger's proposal. He seems the
most diplomatic from the gang, and still he isn't talking about migrating to
R6RS, but cherry picking redeemable features from R6RS to enrich a design
mostly based on R[45]RS. Most explicitly ((de)emphasis mine):

 _The development of Extended R5RS Scheme might even provide a practical
migration path from the R5RS to_ some future standard that supersedes both
_the R5RS and the R6RS while unifying the Scheme community to a degree that
might be_ hard to imagine at this moment.

[http://scheme-punks.cyber-
rush.org/wiki/index.php?title=ERR5...](http://scheme-punks.cyber-
rush.org/wiki/index.php?title=ERR5RS:Charter&redirect=no)

Note, anyway, that Clinger's manifesto, while probably being an inspiration
for the initiative, is not _that_ prominent in the front page. See the opening
paragraphs there:

 _On 29 August 2007, the Revised Revised Revised Revised Revised Revised
Report on Scheme was ratified by the Steering Committee. This has made a lot
of people quite angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Many programmers believe that it was created by some sort of community
process, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle VI believe that the entire
Standard was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green
Arkleseizure. This theory is not widely accepted outside Viltvodle VI, and so,
standards being the puzzling documents that they are, other standards are
being designed._

[http://scheme-punks.cyber-
rush.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main...](http://scheme-punks.cyber-
rush.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)

And some more aggressive statements of purpose:

 _To support the development of new standards for Scheme that fork from R4RS
and R5RS in parallel to the R6RS._

[...]

 _To agree upon a new name to clearly distinguish it from The Language
Formerly Known As Scheme (AKA R6RtlfkaS AKA R6RS)._

[http://scheme-punks.cyber-
rush.org/wiki/index.php?title=Char...](http://scheme-punks.cyber-
rush.org/wiki/index.php?title=Charter)

So..

~~~
nickb
Well said euccastro. The reason why I said it was the 'dissenters' is because
if you take a look at the votes, you will see how these people voted.

<http://www.r6rs.org/ratification/results.html>

dfranke, no, these people do not have any plans to move to R6. R6, in their
minds, is an abomination of Scheme and they will develop a parallel standard
that's a lot less invasive and heavy.

