Smoothing the edges by example (was pilot case?)

Was having a brief conversation offline and it became evident that
perhaps I did not explain my intentions well enough here, so let me
try again.

The intent is not to formalize a process or anything like that!!!
Instead, it is to find think about how we get 'from here to there' and
figure out which kinds of things make the process easier.

The starting point can be anything: Currently some things start out
even in existing WGs as nothing more than an email to a relevant list.
 In terms of prollyfills, what we need is a working implementation and
some kinda doc that describes its proposal.  We've had a few attempts
at this already and they generally start out pretty informal.  That's
really fine.  The goal of a working implementation is to get it out
there, usable/useful to authors, potentially forkable, hopefully
forward compatible, etc... That is where the evolution happens - it's
a really critical part that has been missing in standards.

Assuming the 'slang' begins to pick up, and the rough corners get smoothed out
(or forks and some alternative matures),  eventually we'd expect to
discover use cases, edge cases, etc - as it matures a decent
expectation is that it will pick up some tests and better docs and so
on.  Eventually, as Brendan said, you'll need to work with
implementors or people on WGs to cross the finish line.

Ideally, I think, things would get more "formal" as it goes... As
implementers or WG folks get involved they have to cross a different
bar and actually do have a formal process.  How this could work well
is really an open question.  I don't pretend to have answers, I'm just
opening the conversation.

My suggestion was simply that we pick something that foregoes a bunch
of that and figure out what would be a convenient way to make a
transition... Let's try some things and see what works and what
doesn't.  To that end, I chose something that is already
specified/picked up by a WG and we just happen to have a fill for.

If implementors/WG folks and the community can begin to discuss, maybe
try to work through a few, we could start to figure some of these
things out.  I was thinking that tests might be a really good thing to
consider - if prollyfillers know what it is gonna take and have an
easy way to hand off in a way that helps the WG or standards body that
will ultimately take it up, perhaps they will choose to do so.  If we
can agree to some basic sanity things and set some good examples that
make it easier to review these things, maybe people will follow the
lead.

Thoughts?


--
Brian Kardell :: @briankardell :: hitchjs.com

Received on Tuesday, 7 May 2013 19:55:36 UTC