Here is a response from Ralf.  My initial reaction is to agree with Jonathan and Ralf.
Paul

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Ralf Sommer" <ralf.sommer@tuebingen.mpg.de>
Date: Wed Jul 24, 2002  07:05:37 AM US/Pacific
To: Paul Sternberg <pws@caltech.edu>
Subject: Re: nomenclature

Dear Paul,

I am at the SDB meeting in Madison right now. I see the
problem and think that it is really necessary to establish
rules by now.

In large, I agree with Jonathans comments. The tra(Cb)
suggestion, although in principle workable, would cause some
problems in practice I believe. So, in practice Jonathans
suggestion might work better.

In contrast to Jonathan, I believe that we cannot wait how
the non C. elegans world evolves because there could be too
much damage before we would know.

I would even go a step further: It is more important to
develop strikt rules now so that everybody will be able to
follow them. I guess with that many new people in the field
already (in particular with briggsae and remanei), it is
impossible to find a solution that everybody likes.
Personally, I find it more important to have rules that
everybody is following than having "my" own rules.
Therefore, we should come to a solution soon.

In order to make sure that people will follow these rules
and recommendations, it might even be neceassry to publish
them, like in the Cel case a long time ago. We should do
whatever necessary and possible not to end up like with
pombe and cerevisiae!

Regards,

Ralf

PS: I have problems forwarding this message to the others.
Could you please do that for me. Thanks.