On 4 May 2026, at 00:05, Peter McGoron <peter@mcgoron.com> wrote:

> Regarding the IEEE stuff:
>
> I am concerned about an IEEE standards effort, because the final IEEE standard is not free (gratis, libre). I am also not sure of the practical impact of a standard from the IEEE, as many current software standards usually come from the W3C or the IETF.
>
> IMO STS funding relating to Codeberg would be much more impactful, practically speaking.
>
> Looking at the IEEE standard with my university's subscription, the text of it is very similar to R4RS, with the addition of IEEE stuff like a glossary. So editing together an already-finished standard, like R7RS-Small, seems possible.

The way this would probably work is basically similar to how you suggest: there would be a freely available R7RS large standard, and for people who need a document with an IEEE seal of approval on it, they can pay to buy the substantially similar IEEE 1178:203x (for some hopefully small (possibly even negative) value of x). This would mirror the relationship between R4RS and IEEE 1178:1990.

The Sovereign Tech Fund is supposed to follow a ‘public money, public code’ rule. I already don’t know how this will work for ISO standards considering they are also paywalled; possibly there will be a solution like has been implemented for European standards (ISO standards which have become part of European law), where one can get a free copy by requesting it from the European Commission. I would be sure to check up on that if we end up doing this.

Daphne