[fateman: ANSI stuff]

[Daniel L. Weinreb <DLW@SCRC-QUABBIN.ARPA>]

Fortunately, it was a pretty low-temp flame, devoid of rancor, acrimony,
and the other fundamental alchemical elements of which Flame is
composed.  I agree completely that we were charged with selecting the
committee ourselves.  Calling for volunteers or nominations was not what
we were charged with and would not have been advisable.

I understand what you are saying about the "quantum leap", and I agree
that it would be hard to make a solid class that we are all "first rate"
and Foreraro isn't.  Fortunately, I don't think there's any need to do
that.  Being "world class" was a necessary condition, not a sufficient
one.

I don't think we should make an attempt to justify exactly how we chose
people, since the real algorithm involved our knowledge of peoples'
personalities and how they work with others.  In fact, that is why we
did it as a closed committee-selection group.  It's hard to explain this
without sounding arrogant or cabal-like; we should not allow ourselves
to be backed into a position of having to defend our method of choice.

If the community as a whole feels that the choice is not acceptable,
then they can flush and restart.  If Foderaro wants to try to raise a
groundswell (I truly don't believe that he does!), that is his right.
But just as the high-level ISO committees should not be allowed to
diddle with the CL spec, but merely accept or reject it, the community
as a whole should not be allowed to incrementally modify our list.