Been away a couple weeks, just skimmed this thread, and I just want to
respond to this point.

> In Z39.50 we have a lot of complex machinery that is hardly (or sometimes
> never) used. Mainly because we would introduce some additional
functionality
> (sometimes quite complex - e.g. qSpec) to solve a particular problem in
one
> particular applicaiton, which no-one else needed or subsequently used, or
in
> some causes to solve a hypothetical problem which no-one has actually
> encountered.

Z39.50 solutions were developed to solve problems cited by ZIG members;
rarely have hypothetical problems been addressed.  However Z39.50 is indeed
loaded with orphaned solutions, as in far too many cases an implementor
(and I use that term loosely) has dropped out of sight, or otherwise simply
never implemented a function that he/she advocated. The ZIG never asked
"will you implement it" because that was considered an impolite question.
The ZIG has never been an implementor group.

Here, we have a real implementor group, a real problem cited, and the person
proposing the feature (Rob), I'm confident will implement it.  So I don't
think the Z39.50 "hypothetical problem" argument applies.

--Ray