In with the New

["N. Sivin" nsivin@xxxxxxxx]

I hereby announce a non-competitive competition, in two
stages:

1. To propose the most useful small XPL program that does
not already exist. Some of those proposed will inevitably
already exist, but it will be informative to learn about
them. Anyone who wants to avoid proposing those that are
already well known can take a look at the XYWWWeb site,
which contains a large assortment. On the other hand, this
is much too good-natured a group to crab at someone who
hasn't done so.

2. After we have enough entries, and have agreed on which
are serious desiderata, the second stage is to write such
programs. The most useful are not always the most elaborate.
I don't think we need to pick only one target and work on
that.

I don't see why we need a prize, since virtue is its own
reward. On the other hand, if Tim B still has a spare
Signature shirt, we can offer a unique prize by turning it
inside out and offering it as a ERUTANIGS souvenir.

Cheers,
--
Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-6304
(215) 898-7454
nsivin@xxxxxxxx