[r-t] History

[Graham John]

MBD wrote:

1. The extent is more important than we realise.

It is important, but thousands of quarters have been rung with partial
extents, and these should be available for peals too. I agree with Peter
that simplicity of definitions is paramount, without trying to incorporate
constraints just to try and prevent bands ringing worthless rubbish. Any
change to the definitions will not prevent anyone from ringing what they
have always done.

I therefore believe that we should harmonise all the definitions to be
completely independent of Stage. You should be able to ring a 5250 Stedman
Triples if you want, or a 5000. This does not change the importance of the
extent, provided we maintain truth.

We need to start with and refine straightforward definitions like:

Peal: 

One or more round blocks comprising at least 5000 changes in total.

True: 

A round block is considered true if all its rows are distinct, or if longer
than one extent, are distinct if the rows from any complete extents are
excluded. 

A peal, quarter peal, touch, or plain course is considered true if it is a
true round block in its entirety, excluding a cover bell. If a performance
contains round blocks at two stages, one with a cover bell and one without,
the truth of the two stages are considered independently.

Method: 

A specification of a sequence of changes required to generate a round block,
called the plain course of the method when starting from rounds, or a course
when starting from any other row. 
Starting the plain course from a different change does not give a different
method, so two round blocks that are rotations of one another both define
the same method.
Methods can be modified by calls and/or combined with other methods to
generate larger round blocks.

Graham