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At 01:21 PM 9/12/03 +0100, you wrote:
Lojbab: > Well, if the byfy ever gets around to doing its job, rather than > redesigning the language, we can consider it. Choosing clearer words to > define the status quo language is reasonable. (This is my brief answer to > And's byfy question re conservatives, BTW - I'm simply not that interested > in considering much less discussing what I'm willing to change in the > language design until I see some sign that the byfy is working to define > the bulk of the language according to the status quo.) None of those people eager for the BF to define the bulk of the language according to the status quo are doing any of the work.
Correct. But that is the byfy charter. People seemed to have taken on shepherding and presumed that their primary job was to lead discussions about changes to what has not yet been sufficiently designed.
The way things are currently developing, people are going to end up with a choice between the status quo ante (ante BF) and a version of the language that is internally consistent, well-defined, coherent, etc. etc., but not consistent with the status quo ante when such consistency would compromise the other aims excessively.
Not if no one ever writes a single definition page.
To my mind, though, it would be happier if formalist conservatives did actually try to come up with a definition of the language satisfactory to a formalist conservative. If they succeeded, then they would probably win over the rest of the conservatives and the rest of the formalists. If they tried but failed, that ought to convince people that a conservative formalism is impossible.
People are no longer willing to wait until Lojbab has time to define the cmavo; I don't blame them. But the bottom line is that the byfy isn't currently doing what it was chartered to do, and I see no path from what is being done to any definition of anything.
More in response to Jorge, but then let's move this to the meta-byfy forum. lojbab -- lojbab lojbab@hidden.email Bob LeChevalier, Founder, The Logical Language Group (Opinions are my own; I do not speak for the organization.) Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org