Replace standards document with summary of standards-track PHEPs

[jtniehof]

#29, #33, #34, #35 propose replacing our standards document with standards-track PHEPs. On the PyHC telecon today (2024-09-23), @wtbarnes pointed out that it's nice our existing standards are a single document, easily digestible. @rebeccaringuette suggested some sort of summary document that builds on the standards PHEPs (which would be the definitive reference); @wtbarnes and @nabobalis concurred (that I noted).

Further discussion seemed to indicate a consensus that:

1. Such a document should be more than just gluing together the abstracts of relevant PHEPs and should have some level of individual crafting
2. But it should not be another heavy PHEP-like, approvals-required sort of document.

This would take the form of something like a summary paragraph describing the goals of the standards document, and potentially could be implemented by adding more detail on the PHEPs page, or as a separate document.

Ideas for format and process welcome.

ETA 2024-11-11: The handling of this summary document might be appropriate for a process PHEP.

[jtniehof]

My hope is we can find a process that makes sure this reflects community consensus without having to vote on every dang summary. It would be nice to have the implementation of a new summary be part of the discussion process for each standards-track PHEP (and if we want to require that, it could be added to a successor of PHEP1). And/or we can make revisiting the standards summary a regular activity of each PyHC meeting.

The good news is, right now we have no approved standards-track PHEPs, so we don't have to do much backfilling.

[rebeccaringuette]

Pretty sure someone else suggested this, but happy to support.
The idea was to have some sort of introductory paragraph, maybe two, then a bulleted list or table where the PHEP titles with their links are listed. PHEPs currently in proposal phase (please insert correct term here) would also be listed, but in grey as opposed to black.

[jtniehof]

I had a sidebar with @sapols that I wanted to capture here (and Shawn, please correct as necessary.)

It would be great if we could replace all of our standards with new PHEPs in one fell swoop. That seems unlikely to happen--at this point, only #29 has a chance of being approved before the spring meeting, and it doesn't seem great to hold it up until then. But this is an option.

Another way forward is to gradually replace the standards doc. As each PHEP is passed that replaces a standard, that standard can be replaced in the standards document with a note that it's been replaced, a summary of the PHEP, and a link to it. The first such replacement would also add a note to the top of the document that changes after 2018 were via the PHEP process. Each new approved PHEP would then result in a new version of the standards document uploaded to Zenodo.

What to do with PHEPs that establish new standards is an interesting question--would we add more numbers? Would we maintain standards numbers going forward? Certain topics that we're considering related now don't have adjacent numbers.

After all standards have been replaced by PHEPs, we could either retire this document, or make it be the new summary document.

[jtniehof]

We sort of seem to be sliding in to "gradual updating of standards as a summary document" by default (nothing wrong with that).

I suggest we add to the top "Updates to this document are managed via the PHEP process".

Maybe we do this as part of merging #29, which is the first one to do this?

[sapols]

Totally agree. I commented that in #29 too so I don't forget.