Flagging up this idea for today's discussion as I think it was overlooked and something we'd all agree is desirable.
A potential proposal is that each spec must keep an inventory of optional features and each CCR must accurately report which they do and do not implement.
In brief:
1. We'd have a section in each spec with a simple list of optional features
2. A CCR would have that same list and indicate what they do and do not support
This relates to our discussion in these two ways:
- Ed's inventory was mostly complete and I'm sure took considerable time, proving it's very hard for even us to know what is or is not optional
- We've said things like, "If everyone implements it it maybe shouldn't be optional", but we have no way of knowing what people do or do not implement
To me it seems we'd need both of these things to make more progress in the future beyond the immediate action of dealing with CMP/BMP and Embedded EJB Container.
As an analogy we want to cut down our expenses (optional features), but we don't have a clear idea of what are expenses are (what is actually optional) and if we need them (if none, some, or all of us implement them). I don't see a way to jump to the end and "cut all expenses", when we don't even know what they are or if we need any of them.
If we would like to make more aggressive progress we need this awareness. If we don't want to make aggressive progress, we don't need this awareness, we can keep dealing with the worst cases one by one.
-David
