Thanks, Alastair, for a good summary of the library "process".
There's only one area I'd like to comment on:
> o The whole notion of "standard" libraries becomes much fuzzier.
>
> If you can download the source code for a well documented, thoroughly
> tested library from somewhere, does it really matter whether it is
> part of the language standard?
Yes, I think it DOES matter, because people will become familiar with
the standard libraries, so that if I see in the code the function
Lib/Foo.bar, and I am familiar with it, then I will know what it does
without having to look at module Foo. I think that if someone uses
a non-blessed/stable/whatever library that they should give the module
a different name or something so that confusion doesn't arise.
Of course, this places more emphasis on the "blessing" part.
> Receiving the blessing of the Library
> Czar just indicates that He believes the library is well designed,
> well documented, well implemented, etc.
I think the czar needs to be very careful with this decision. Of course,
libraries will be more volatile than the core, but they should still be
thought of as forming part of the overall "standard".
-Paul
