float to bfloat .. disagreement meta-question

>>>>> "Richard" == Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> writes:

    Richard> This may not be the right issue, but we may be faced in the
    Richard> future with differences where groups want to go different ways
    Richard> with the design or implementation.

    Richard> How to resolve disagreements?

    Richard> 1. argue until reaching consensus (Common Lisp committee). If
    Richard> no consensus?
    Richard> 2. break off in a fit of pique and form another language (Unix
    Richard> standard behavior with respect to operating systems).
    Richard> 3. hide behind some switch (e.g.
    Richard> try_to_rationalize_float_before_conversion_to_bigfloat: true)
    Richard> 4. vote; majority rules.
    Richard> 5. appeal to authority.
    Richard> 6. standards "committee" authority.
    Richard> 7. Something else. (?)

I agree that 2 and 3 are not good.  Don't think there is a 6.
That leaves 4 and 5.  I think Macsyma should guide us as much as
possible, since I assume they've had to deal with these issues
before.  If that's not enough, I would say a vote.  

But who gets to vote?  All users?  All "active" users?  Only those
with CVS write access?  Any vetoes allowed?

FWIW, cmucl generally votes on issues, and every user is allowed to
vote, with equal weighting.  (I can only recall 2 votes ever being
conducted, however.  I lost both. :-) )


Ray