On Aug 6, 2009, at 12:18 PM, Dan Connolly wrote:
Our positions are close enough that I'm not going
to bother all of public-html with them...
Fair enough. Mainly I didn't want Shelley or anyone else to get the
impression that being a WG member to deny them a voice.
- Last Call is an appropriate time to register Formal Objections,
even
from WG members. Technically, Formal Objections don't even really
mean
anything before LC.
Perhaps it's a matter of chairing style, but I don't think last
call is an appropriate time to register formal objections.
The appropriate time is after chair proposes to close
an issue and asks "any objections?" and before the chair
actually announces the outcome of the decision.
I was wrong on this, because as Sam pointed out, Formal Objections
need to be raised in a timely manner. I disagree with you slightly on
the order of things though. My understanding is: technically you can
only Formally Object to a decision, not to a proposal. Thus, while you
can declare the intent to raise a Formal Objection in advance of a
decision, you can't actually enter one until the decision is made.
- It is common and accepted for WG members to comment on a spec in
the
course of LC, either because they discover new issues, or because
they
bring up something that may have been discussed, but not resolved by
Working Group decision.
Except for the new issues, I consider that irregular, for the
same reason you gave above: decisions can only be reopened based on
new information. Anything that wasn't resolved by a WG decision on
a specific issue is resolved in the decision to go to last call.
What I've found to be very common is editorial issues and minor
technical problems (such as contradictions or dangling references or
the like) that are not points of deep controversy and can usually be
disposed without debate.
Regards,
Maciej
