[r-t] What people think they have rung

[Robin Woolley]

Hi All,

Isn't much of the recent discussion going back to the initial event 
which caused this trouble? A band wanted to describe what they had rung 
in their own way.

Think back to Don's point about learning Plain Bob. There are sometimes 
many ways to learn a method (or a composition, even). Take Cambridge or 
Yorkshire Royal - which will be the Surprise Royal *most* learn first. 
One member of this list is a blue-line learner. I was taught to ring 
them by the rules. There will be those who ring by place notation. (All 
of us will have come across those who ring by 'space notation' - find a 
hole and fill it.) Following the thread of the discussion, there could 
be three different names, quite easily, for the same thing. (Does anyone 
know the blue line for DNCB, I wonder?)

I called a quarter of PB6 on Saturday - nor did I? There is nothing to 
stop me sending this up as Spliced Plain & Single St. Hilda.

Sometimes, life comes down to what most people will accept. Many of us 
on this list will have some sort of mathematical background. What would 
happen if a small minority decided to use different names for a group, a 
ring or a coset? What is going on here is Mummersetshire thinking - 'we 
always do this if it's the third Wednesday of five in a month with an R 
in it'. For those of you with a medical background, what would happen if 
one Medical school taught all diseases with different names?

Someone has to decide. A recent poll said it shouldn't be the Methods 
Committee. Who is it to be? If there is no one to decide, we'll end up 
with a Tower of Babel where, for example, the same method will have 
different names in adjoining villages for no other reason that they rang 
it first under their own village name. e.g., Oxton Doubles is called 
Woodborough or Calverton or Farnsfield because they also rang it there. 
Or, is it better if someone goes to the far north of the country and, 
when asked to get hold for Cambridge, they know what they are being 
asked to do? Someone has to decide.

As regards polls, how many people are on this theory line?

Best wishes
Robin