Subject: SC 22 N 3157 - SC 22/WG 5 Business Plan/Convener's Report

From: Lisa Rajchel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 12:35:38 -0400

_____________________beginning of title page ______________

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces
Secretariat:  U.S.A.  (ANSI)

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
N3157

TITLE:
SC 22/WG 5 Business Plan/Convener's Report 

DATE ASSIGNED:
2000-08-27

SOURCE:
J. Reid, Convener, SC 22/WG 5

BACKWARD POINTER:
N/A

DOCUMENT TYPE:
Other (Defined)

PROJECT NUMBER:

STATUS:
This document will be discussed under Agenda Item 8.3 at the JTC 1/SC 22
Plenary Meeting. 

ACTION IDENTIFIER:
FYI to SC22 Member Bodies

DUE DATE:
N/A

DISTRIBUTION:
text

CROSS REFERENCE:

DISTRIBUTION FORM:
Def

Lisa Rajchel
ANSI
11 West 42nd Street
New York, NY  10036
Telephone:  (212) 642-4932
Fax:             (212) 840-2298
Email:  [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

_____________________end of title page _________________________

	ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1415

WG5 Business Plan and Convener's Report to the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 2000
Plenary

PERIOD COVERED BY THIS REPORT: August 1999 to August 2000.
SUBMITTED BY: Dr John Reid  (Convener of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5)
	JKR Associates, 24 Oxford Road, Benson, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 6LX,
UK.
	Phone: +44 1235 446493, Fax: +44 1235 446626,
	Email: [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

1 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
1.1	JTC1/SC22/WG5 Statement of Scope 

	The development and maintenance of ISO/IEC Fortran programming
language standards.

1.2	Project Report 

	1.2.1	Completed Projects 

		22.02.01.02	Type 2 TR on Floating Point Exception
Handling in Fortran

The TR was published in December 1998 as TR 15580:1998. A revised version is
ready for publication.

22.02.01.04 Type 2 TR on Enhanced Data Type Facilities in Fortran
The TR was published in December 1998 as TR 15581:1998. A revised version is
ready for publication.

	22.02.02	Programming Language Fortran - Part 2: Varying
length character strings

		A revised version of this part of the Fortran standard was
published in June 2000 as ISO/IEC 1539-2:2000(E).

		22.02.03	Programming Language Fortran - Part 3:
Conditional Compilation

The IS was published in April 1999 as IS 1539-3:1999.

	1.2.2	Projects Underway 

		22.02.01.01	Programming Language Fortran - Part 1: Base
language

The requirements for the next revision of the base Fortran Standard (IS
1539-1:1997), referred to informally as Fortran 2000, were agreed by WG5 at
its meeting in Las Vegas, USA, in February 1997.  In accordance with WG5's
agreed strategic policy, the development of the draft standard was delegated
to NCITS/J3, acting as WG5's Primary Development Body. The target date for
J3 to deliver the draft standard to WG5 is June 2002. It is expected that
the first CD ballot will commence in October 2002.  The target date for the
publication of the revised standard is December 2004.
WG5 and J3 are developing new procedures to provide more effective means for
WG5 members to contribute to the work of its Primary Development Body in
order to ensure that corrigenda to IS 1539-1:1997 are published in a timely
fashion and before the first CD Ballot for Fortran 2000.  The first of these
corrigenda will be submitted for SC22 balloting this autumn and the second
will be submitted in the autumn of 2001.

22.02.03 Programming Language Fortran - Part 3: Conditional Compilation
Defect processing has been started and suggested edits are in document WG5
N1409, which was prepared at the meeting in Oulu (August 2000) and will be
the subject of an informal letter ballot of WG5 members. All changes are
minor except for the omission of a line of text between the DIS and IS. The
ISO secretariat has agreed to reprint the document with the line restored.
It is proposed not to prepare a corrigendum unless other serious defects are
found, in which case the changes in N1409 will be included.

	1.2.3	Cancelled Projects

		None

1.3	Cooperation and Competition 

	WG5 cooperates closely with the ANSI NCITS/J3 Fortran Technical
Committee, to whom it has delegated the technical development of Fortran
2000 as well as the maintenance of Fortran 95 (ISO/IEC 1539-1:1997). There
is also close contact with the industry-driven HPF and OpenMP Consortia,
with several members of the Consortia also being members of J3 and/or WG5.
Many of those responsible for the development of commercial Fortran
compilers are members of J3 and/or WG5.
	Other important liaisons are those with IFIP WG2.5 (Numerical
Software) and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG20 (Internationalization).
	There are no competitive activities.

2 PERIOD REVIEW 
2.1	Market Requirements 

	Fortran is still the language of choice for the majority of
scientific and technological programming.  The long delay between the
release of Fortran 77 and the availability of Fortran 90 compilers, at a
time when other languages, such as C and C++, were evolving rapidly, had a
significant impact on the use of Fortran, but there are now clear signs that
the facilities available in Fortran 90 and Fortran 95 are causing a growing
number of scientific and technological users to move towards these latest
versions of Fortran.
	Most major Fortran compiler vendors are represented either on WG5 or
its Primary Development Body, NCITS/J3, as are many of the major research
establishments that rely on Fortran for their numerical computing.  There
are also two active email lists for users of Fortran, which provide valuable
feedback from users.  All these diverse sources are being used to guide the
development of the language, both through revisions to the base language
Standard, and through other related standards and technical reports.

2.2	Achievements

	A new Part 2 of the Standard has been published during the year,
while revisions of two Technical Reports TR15580 and TR15581, describing
features that will be incorporated in the next revision of the Base Language
Standard (Part 1), have both passed their Concurrent PDTR Registration and
PDTR Ballots without any disapproval votes.

2.3	Resources 

	As elsewhere in the Standardization world, it is becoming
increasingly difficult to persuade employers to provide the necessary
funding for Standards activity.  WG5 delegates most of the technical work
involved in developing Standards and Technical Reports to 'development
bodies' which are either based on a national Fortran committee, as in the
case of NCITS/J3 - the primary development body responsible for development
of the revision to the base language standard and its subsequent
maintenance, or consist of a (small) multinational group under the
leadership of the relevant project editor.  WG5 currently has one such
active development body, the primary development body, developing standards,
and four development bodies monitoring published standards and technical
reports for maintenance purposes.
	WG5 itself carries out much of its discussions via email, with an
annual meeting during the summer, and occasional other meetings at critical
stages in the development of the base language standard. The meeting in
August 2000 was attended by thirteen members, including the Convenor,
representing six countries.

3 FOCUS FOR NEXT WORK PERIOD 
3.1	Deliverables 

	It is anticipated that the first corrigendum for Part 1 of the
Standard will be ready for SC22 processing before the end of the year.
	It is hoped that revised versions of TR 15580:1998 and TR 15581:1998
will be published soon.

3.2	Strategies 

	WG5 operates under a strategic plan described in WG5 Standing
Document 4, the latest version of which, WG5 N1349, is annexed to this
Report.  In particular, the revision of the base Standard, IS 1539-1, is
delegated to ANSI NCITS/J3 operating as WG5's Primary Development Body,
while the other projects for which WG5 is responsible are handled by other
Development Bodies which liaise with the Primary Development Body as
required.

	3.2.1	Risks

		As far as possible, WG5 tries to anticipate technical
comments during international ballots by holding informal ballots of its
members before any documents are submitted for ballot. Nevertheless,
unexpected technical comments can always delay the planned schedule.

	3.2.2	Opportunities

		WG5 has made extensive use of email for over a decade to
speed up technical development. Since 1995 most documents have been
distributed via an official file server in the UK, with two mirror sites in
the USA; all documents have been distributed in this way since 1997.  An
open web site is also used to provide non-technical, and other publicly
available, information to interested parties.
		In addition to speeding up the distribution of documents,
the use of electronic distribution and communication systems also provides
many other benefits, such as the ability to rapidly carry out informal
ballots of the members for various reasons.

3.3	Work Program Priorities 

	Finalization of Corrigendum 1 to Fortran 95 and preparation of
Corrigendum 2 are WG5's priority activities this year. WG5 members will also
monitor, and/or participate in, the work of WG5's Primary Development Body,
NCITS/J3, as it moves into the final stages of the development of the
Working Draft of the revision of the base Fortran language Standard, ISO/IEC
1539-1:1997.

4 OTHER ITEMS
4.1	Action Requested at the Forthcoming SC22 Plenary

	At its recent meeting in Oulu, WG5 expressed concern about
increasing unauthorized and irrelevant use of the SC22 email reflector
system and would be most grateful if this could be investigated.
4.2	Recent Meetings

	2000/8/14-18 Oulu, Finland 

4.3 Future Meetings
2001/07/30-8/3 UK
2002/08        Netherlands?
2003/04        USA (1st CD ballot resolution)
2003/08        tba

Note that WG5 normally meets annually, with extra meetings being held
as/when necessary to process ballot comments or other high priority
activities that do not accord with the regular meeting schedule.  WG5's
Primary Development Body, NCITS/J3, meets quarterly.  Other work is carried
out via email.

....................................................................

Annex
	ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/N1349
	The Fortran Standardization Process
	(WG5 Standing Document 4)
The international standard for Fortran is a multi-part set of standards.
Part 1 defines the base language; other parts define optional auxiliary
standards.  WG5 has the responsibility of maintaining these standards and of
developing them separately and jointly as may be appropriate.  It follows
the procedures described below, subject always to the over-riding ISO
procedures.

1.  Major functions
There are three major functions: (1) identification of needs and
specification of standard requirements, (2) development of standard document
content and (3) maintenance of the current standard.  Other activities
include scheduling, performing liaison and review activities, and conducting
ad hoc studies.  The requirements and development functions should be
separate but highly coordinated.  Draft documents (standards, amendments,
corrigenda, technical reports, etc.) will be submitted to ISO for adoption.

2.  The requirements function
The result of requirements specification is a document that prescribes the
functional requirements for a revision of the base language standard or of
related standards.
WG5, from time to time, determines, records, distributes, and maintains the
needs and suggested requirements for Fortran.  To begin a new revision WG5,
using the recorded needs and suggested requirements, establishes objectives
and corresponding functional requirements, specifications, and schedule for
that revision.

3.  The development function
The development function develops the international standard revisions and
related auxiliary standards, in accordance with the specified requirements
and schedule.
A development body will be chosen to produce each revision or new auxiliary
standard.  The development body for a revision of the base Fortran standard
is termed the "primary development body".  It is the responsibility of each
development body to determine how the requirements are to be met and to
prepare the corresponding draft document.  Revisions of the Fortran standard
will incorporate approved corrections as well as fully implemented
requirements.
A development body will nominate a project editor, produce a draft document
to meet the agreed schedule and specified requirements, establish a document
production system that will allow the most recent electronic version of any
proposed standard to be available to all members of WG5 and the development
body and coordinate with other development bodies and organizations, as
appropriate.

4.  The maintenance function
Maintenance of a standard involves correcting errors that are discovered in
the standard and providing official interpretations for those parts of the
standard that are found to be unclear or incompletely specified.  A
corrigendum that incorporates corrections resulting from this maintenance
activity will be produced periodically.
WG5 will determine maintenance bodies for Fortran revision standards and
auxiliary standards.  In general, the body that develops a standard will be
responsible for its maintenance.  WG5 will conduct a letter ballot on items
that the maintenance body identifies as ready for further processing.  From
the items thus approved, WG5 will extract material appropriate for a
technical corrigendum and forward the resulting draft to SC22 for further
processing.  This procedure will be repeated as required.

5.  Scheduling
WG5 will determine the approximate target date for each revision of the base
standard - typically between five and ten years - and will negotiate with
the primary development body a detailed schedule consistent with this
target.  For other development work WG5 will negotiate an appropriate
schedule with the corresponding development body.  Activities involving
maintenance of the current standard will take place concurrently with the
development activities.

6. The multi-part standard
Some needs may be met most effectively with auxiliary standards rather than
by revision of the base standard.  Such an auxiliary standard is related to
the base standard in some significant way; each auxiliary standard is a
separate part of the Fortran standard, with Part 1 being the base language.
Standard-conforming implementations must accommodate the whole of Part 1;
the other parts are optional.
Because of the serious potential for incompatibilities arising from
uncoordinated extension activities, WG5 requests that all bodies developing
extension standards coordinate their work closely with the primary
development body and requires that the work be technically acceptable to the
primary development body before approval by WG5.
At some point it may become appropriate to incorporate an auxiliary standard
into the base standard.  WG5 will accomplish this by assigning the
integration to the primary development body, with assistance from the
development body responsible for maintenance of the auxiliary standard.

7. Liaison and review activities
It is the responsibility of WG5 and the development bodies to establish
liaison or contact with and review the work of other organizations whose
work items relate to the Fortran standards effort.   A list of such
organizations is maintained in WG5 Standing Document 6, WG5 Liaison
Activities.

8. Conducting ad hoc studies
It is the responsibility of WG5 to determine whether studies are needed to
aid the identification and requirements specification processes.  WG5 may
carry out such ad hoc studies or may request one or more participating
member bodies to carry out  such studies.

9.  Coordination within WG5 and between WG5 and development bodies
Meeting schedules will be coordinated to best accomplish the goals
established by the schedule.  The WG5 Convenor will when appropriate conduct
letter ballots of members to assist in reaching decisions between meetings.
There should be as much overlap as possible in the membership of WG5 and
development bodies, especially with the primary development body.  This
provides informal communication and continuity.
Formal written reports and resolutions will be used to clarify
communications and maintain a record of communications.