Subject: alt.lang.focal - more thoughts (was Re: alt.lang.focal)

From: [email-masked] (Magnus Olsson)
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 23:19:37 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Crystobal J. Junta <[email-masked]> wrote:
>So, shall we call for votes on the creation of alt.lang.focal?

That's not required. It would be needed to create a mainstream group
comp.lang.focal, but somehow I don't think the interest in Focal is
quite big enough to warrant a comp.lang.* group... :-)

So my proposal is to create an altnet group instead. All that is
needed for creating such a group is that it be discussed on alt.config
in advance, which condition has been fulfilled.

I'd just like to point out a few things:

My intention in proposing the group was not to relieve alt.sys.pdp8
from an excessive amount of Focal-generated traffic. As has been
pointed out, the number of Focal posts hasn't been so big that it's
disturbed the normal traffic of alt.sys.pdp8. 

However, I think that alt.sys.pdp8 isn't the ideal newsgroup for
discussing Focal, especially since people who're interested in Focal
but not in PDP-8's will probably never get the idea to look in this
newsgroup for posts about Focal! 

Also, I think that having a special group for Focal will stimulate
interest in the language and generate more traffic. This is one of the
rationales for the existance of alt.lang.teco and alt.lang.intercal,
both of which are extremely low-volume groups.

I'm aware that this reasoning is frowned at on the mainstream Usenet,
where groups are supposed to be created because there already is a lot
of traffic on a topic, not because somebody hopes that  the traffic
will be generated.  It is clear that the traffic on Focal so far does
not warrant a mainstream comp.lang.focal.

But this is altnet, where slightly different rules apply.

Since the proposal is completely serious and the group has been
discussed on alt.config, it would be OK to issue a newgroup message now.

However, before I do that, I'd like to ask you all a question:

Provided the group is created, should we encourage the posting of
source code related to Focal (i.e. either Focal code or source for
Focal interpreters?). I think we should, since such code would be a
bit too marginal to post on comp.sources.misc, and might drown in the
general noise on alt.sources. But I'd like to have your views on this.

Bottom line: if no serious objections are voiced _on alt.config_
within the next few days, I'll send out a newgroup message early next
week. 

Happy Hacking!

              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_
    Department of Theoretical Physics      |  \  Z   / q
        University of Lund, Sweden         |   >----<           
 [email-masked],  [email-masked]  |  /      \===== g
PGP key available via finger or on request | /e-      \q

---

From: [email-masked] (Magnus Olsson)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 20:01:45 GMT

I've just sent out a newgroup message for alt.lang.focal. Provided
your News manager doesn't see any objectionable in it, the group will
hopefully be created at your site within a few days. If it isn't,
please let me know. 

              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_