WG ACTION: 2 weeks to discuss [LL69] Move constants to beginning of doc

Please post discussion of this issue to the mailing list over the 
next two weeks
ending May 18, 2004.  In order to accept this issued, we will need a strong WG
consensus given that this is very late in the process.

Please see http://www.drizzle.org/~aboba/ZEROCONF/issues.html for a list of
current issues and their status.

[LL69]

Description of Issue:		Move constants to beginning of doc
Submitter Name:                 Stuart Cheshire
Submitter Email Address:        [email protected]
Date first submitted:           04 May 04
Reference:
Comment Type ['t'ech|'e'dit]:	e
Prio ['S' Must|1 should|2 may]:	1
Section:			9
Rationale/Explanation:
Lengthy Description:

[Stuart]

>9.  Constants
>
>    The following timing constants are used in this protocol.
>
>    PROBE_MIN              1 second
>    PROBE_MAX              2 seconds
>    PROBE_N                2
>    NUM_PROBES             3
>    MAX_COLLISIONS        10
>    RATE_LIMIT_INTERVAL   60 seconds

Can we list this *before* they are used in the text?

Abstractions are great for experts, but not for people learning. Think
about children. They learn specific examples first, and then from a
collection of specific examples generalize to abstractions. Beginning
with the abstract is not the way to inform the reader.

[Erik]

Listing constants early in the RFC is not common practice.  Constants
are not abstractions.

[Stuart]

Using a symbolic identifier in place of a concrete value is not
abstraction?

Since when?

>abB7stracB7tion B B   B PB B B Pronunciation KeyB B (b-strkshn, b-)
>ignoring or hiding details

>  1. Generalisation; ignoring or hiding details to capture some
>  kind of commonality between different instances. Examples are
>  abstract data types (the representation details are hidden),
>  abstract syntax (the details of the concrete syntax are
>  ignored), abstract interpretation (details are ignored to
>  analyse specific properties).
>
>  2. <programming> Parameterisation, making something a function
>  of something else. Examples are lambda abstractions (making
>  a term into a function of some variable), higher-order
>  functions (parameters are functions), bracket abstraction
>  (making a term into a function of a variable).

Requested Change:

Move Section 9 to the beginning of the document, say to terminology.