This 3rd AMAST digest collects the comments received between 16.08.94 and 29.08.94 on the proposal for a new, permanent AMAST list. The comments are presented in the chronological order of their arrival. This digest is distributed to the subscribers of the list amast@cs.utwente.nl, as well as to those who asked for it by a request to amast-info@cs.utwente.nl. I look forward to receiving further comments; if you have some, please send them to the following address: amast@cs.utwente.nl They will be included in the next digest, which is expected to be distributed on Monday 12 September 1994. Best regards, Pippo ______________________ STATISTICS -- 29.08.94 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The current statistics about subscriptions and no. of people contributing comments are as follows: (A) 39 contributed comments (5 twice, 2 thrice), (B) 221 subscribed (10 with the ToC-only option) (C) 6 sent a request to amast-info, without subscribing as yet, (D) 19 unsubscribed explicitly. [beginning of 3nd AMAST Digest] =============================================== ____________ Thomas Lambolais: In fact I am interested in the Lotos language, and especially in CCS-like specifications. In particular, I am working on ways of improving the building of (large (but trusty)) specifications, and of reusing such constructions afterwards, either to maintain the product or to apply the construction process to other subject products... At this moment, pure abstract data types are not yet in my field of interest. I don't yet know whether the investigation of the specification construction process is a relevant goal, or subject of discussion, in the AMAST mailing list; I look forward to finding this out. ____________ Andre' Arnold: May I suggest that each newsletter recalls the address of the AMAST ftp server? ____________ Martin Wieczorek: One suggestion w.r.t. the layout of the newletters: for me, it will be better to get a newsletter without containing tabs or the like for horizontal formatting. Maybe it will be simple to provide an ASCII-version and a TEX/LATEX-version of the newsletters? ____________ Pippo Scollo (in reply to Martin Wieczorek): As you may have seen by now, the newsletter is plain-text (ASCII), and has no tabs or the like. I'm getting prepared to generate a HTML version as well, so that it will be possible to browse through the newsletter on the WWW, for example by Mosaic. This opens quite exciting perspectives, e.g., the short announcements which form the newsletter may actually be *linked* to their longer versions, so that browsing through the newsletter may directly bring the reader to the (usually more detailed) sources of the newsletter's contents. An additional, third version of the newsletter (e.g. TeX/LaTeX) would require additional resources, but the cost-effectiveness of such an investment is not clear to me (this is a personal view, of course). ____________ Martin Wieczorek: All in all the newsletter looks good for me and provides me with a lot of interesting information. A TEX/LATEX-version was only one possibility meant for those who would like to get more layout into the newsletter. For me it will not really be needed! I am happy with the pure ASCII text. On the other hand I find it a good idea to provide for more browsing facilities to make the handling with the newsletter information more efficient. ____________ Roland Backhouse: I am very much interested in the goals of AMAST and wish to keep in touch but I am genuinely concerned that an unmoderated electronic communication system will be counter-productive. I have recently (and probably belatedly) being trying to catch up on the revolution that is going on all around me. A couple of weeks ago I created an entry for myself in world-wide web, and for the first time spent an hour nosing around in the system. That was fine: I could choose for myself what information I wanted to look at. About a month ago I also subscribed to some newsletters. Not for the first time - I'd tried it out some time ago only to give it up as a bad loss. Not wishing to be cast off as an old, reactionary, fuddy-duddy I decided about a month ago to give it another try. I haven't looked at any of them for a couple of weeks but, whilst composing this letter, I just did so. As I expected there were literally *thousands* of items waiting to be read. (I subscibe to several linux and several functional programming newsletters.) Worse still there must have been about twenty new newsgroups that had automatically been added to my subscription list. I haven't yet worked out how to stop that happening but, in any case, I don't plan to read newsletters any more even though I do run the risk of being labelled a crusty, reactionary, old fuddy-duddy with no right to call himself a computing scientist. The problem is, of course, the immense volumes of "information" that are now being zapped all over the world at the push of a button. I am all for passive information services (the receiver of the information has to take action to obtain the information) but very much against active information services (services where the receiver passively receives information) in particular where the receiver has no control on the *volume* of information that is received. I gave up membership of the EATCS some years ago partly because the volume of material that was being sent to me had grown beyond the bounds of what I considered acceptable. I found I was reading the newsletter less and less as its size grew. (I had also been guilty of contributing to that growth in size!) To come back to AMAST. It truly bothers me what I will be letting myself in for. I'd be happy to subscribe to a newsletter of which I had a guarantee that its size would be strictly limited to, say, five pages per week but would immediately unsubscribe if its size were to grow uncontrollably. (I wouldn't buy a newspaper that wouldn't fit comfortably under my arm.) Receiving the cover page via email appeals to me as a trial measure. ____________ Denise Aboim Sande e Oliveira: I found the idea of an AMAST newsletter very very interesting. I'm subscribing now to amast-request, since it's pertinent to my area of research (logic and semantic representations). I haven't kept track of the discussion, but I think very important the continuation of the AMAST list, especially if discussions are to be more frequent and varied. Whenever I find something useful, I may contribute also. ____________ Gillian Hill: I would choose to receive both the digest and the newsletter in the long format, since I find them concise and interesting. Please be firm and ensure that they are no longer nor more frequent in the future.