SAMP RFC: MType list

[Mark Taylor]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2009, Christophe Arviset wrote:

> Mark
>
> Thanks for your answer. Indeed having the MTypes documented in some SAMP 
> specific web pages will solve the "visibility" part of the question.
>
> But I may have an other question about the process on how MTypes get added / 
> removed / updated to that list?
> On one side, we need to have some flexibility for these changes and I do NOT 
> advocate to go through the standard REC process.
> But on the other side, we also need to have some level of formality to 
> control these changes.
>
> What are your views on this ?

My personal view is that it makes sense to continue to use an informal 
approach unless and until we see some reason that it's inadequate or
problematic.  Up till now, apart from visibility which as you say I hope 
will be solved by using a persistent URL as I've suggested, the simple 
wiki page, with discussion on the apps-samp list, has worked fine. 
A wiki page
(http://eurovotech.org/twiki/bin/view/VOTech/PlasticMessagesProposal)
also worked well for the same purpose with PLASTIC.

Perhaps some additional structure (e.g. one page for stable MTypes and 
one for more experimental ones) could be of use, but having it wiki-based
makes it easy to adjust the level of structure as such requirements become
clear.  The list of MTypes is explicitly intended to be extensible, and 
I think that making it easy to add to and modify (in backwardly-compatible
ways) MTypes is a Good Thing.  I'm not convinced that the additional 
layer of procedure required even by documenting these in an IVOA Note 
has much to offer for now - but I'm open to the idea that it might
do depending on how SAMP usage and take-up progresses.

However, I'm prepared to have a debate about this if other people 
disagree.

Mark

-- 
Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/