Subject: SC 22 N 3449 - SC 22/WG 19 Business Plan/Convener's Report

From: Matthew Deane <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 09:49:32 -0400

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

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N3449

TITLE:
SC 22/WG 19 Business Plan/Convener's Report 

DATE ASSIGNED:
2002-07-29

SOURCE:
SC 22/WG 19 Convenor (R. Scowen)

BACKWARD POINTER:
N/A

DOCUMENT TYPE:
Other document (Open)

PROJECT NUMBER:

STATUS:
This document was received by the July 26 deadline, so it will be reviewed
at the upcoming SC 22 Plenary under Agenda
Item 8.11.

ACTION IDENTIFIER:
FYI

DUE DATE:
N/A

DISTRIBUTION:
Text

CROSS REFERENCE:

DISTRIBUTION FORM:
Open

Matt Deane
ANSI
25 West 43rd Street
New York, NY  10036
Telephone:  (212) 642-4992
Fax:             (212) 840-2298
Email:  [email-masked]

______end of cover page, beginning of document__________

BUSINESS PLAN AND CONVENER'S REPORT
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG19
(FORMAL DEFINITION LANGUAGES)

PERIOD COVERED: Sept 2001 - July 2002

SUBMITTED BY:  R S Scowen
(ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG19 Convener)
9 Birchwood Grove, Hampton, Middlesex
United Kingdom     TW12 3DU
Tel: +44 (0)20 8979 7429;
Fax: +44 (0)20 8287 3810;
E-mail: (1) [email-masked]
(2) [email-masked]
26 July 2002

1. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG19 STATEMENT OF SCOPE
Development of ISO/IEC standards related to formal development
notations and methods.

1.2 PROJECT REPORT

1.2.1 COMPLETED PROJECTS
JTC1.22.29.01 -- ISO/IEC 13817-1 Vienna Development
Method/Specification Language - Part 1: Base Language
ISO/IEC 13817-1 was published in 1996.  So far, no major problems have
been reported.

JTC1.22.14977 -- ISO/IEC 14997 Syntactic metalanguage - Extended BNF
ISO/IEC 14977 was published in 1996.  So far, no major problems have
been reported.

JTC1.22.45 -- ISO/IEC 13568 Z Notation
The FDIS was published late in 2001. The only negative comments
concerned the peripheral interaction of Z and ISO/IEC 10646. The
standard has now been published as ISO/IEC 13568:2002 (it appears in
the ISO/IEC online catalogue - I have not yet seen a copy), and a
Technical Corrigendum has been prepared to take account of the
negative comments.

1.2.2 PROJECTS UNDERWAY
ISO/IEC 14977:1996 is to be revised and some correspondence has taken
place.  WG19 intend to prepare a revision in order to correct a few
known minor errors, and also to improve its applicability.

1.2.3 NEW AND CANCELLED PROJECTS
None.

1.3 COOPERATION AND COMPETITION
WG19 has always tried to cooperate with the whole formal development
methods community.  Where appropriate, WG19 has established contact
with other SC22 working groups. There is no direct competition with
any other efforts.

2.0 PERIOD REVIEW

2.1 MARKET REQUIREMENTS
Formal development methods have often been developed in academia.
Standardization will give credibility to their work, and encourage
their tuition and future developments to be built on sound and common
foundations.

2.2 ACHIEVEMENTS
ISO/IEC 13817-1:1996 (VDM, Base language).
ISO/IEC 13568:2002 (Z notation).
ISO/IEC 14977:1996 (Syntactic metalanguage - Extended BNF).
The Z standardization web site is at:
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~ian/zstan/

2.3 RESOURCES
Although resources in general are declining, the future of the current
WG19 projects seems to be secured. The WG19 mailing list includes
experts from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland,
Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, & USA.

3.0 FOCUS NEXT WORK PERIOD
For the upcoming work period, WG19's main task will be to deal with
any maintenance required for ISO/IEC 13568:2002, and progress the
revision of ISO/IEC 14977.

3.1 DELIVERABLES
ISO/IEC 13568 Z notation
Publication of Technical Corrigendum 2002-10-01

ISO/IEC 14977 Extended BNF
CD registration and ballot   2003-03-01

3.2 STRATEGIES
WG19 has two principal strategies: (1) technical excellence, and (2)
liaison with all interested parties

3.2.1 RISKS
Consensus may be difficult to achieve in Extended BNF.

3.2.2 OPPORTUNITIES
The standards would undoubtedly be more widely adopted if freely
available electronically over the web.

3.3 WORK PROGRAM PRIORITIES
The completion of ISO/IEC 13568 has had priority, focus will now be on
the revision of ISO/IEC 14977.

4. OTHER ITEMS
This section lists other items that are not part of the "Business
Plan" but are appropriate for the "Convener's Report".

4.1 ACTION REQUEST AT FORTHCOMING PLENARY
The recent ISO requirement that comments on  ballots be in specified
formats fails to provide for preparing such comments using  non
proprietary software. It is requested that SC22 ask for an open
systems template (such as LaTeX or HTML) for preparing these comments.

4.2 CONVENER AND PROJECT EDITORS
Roger Scowen is the convener of WG19, and Steve King is deputy
convener.
The following individuals have been appointed project editors:
JTC1.22.29.01 -- Vienna Development Method Derek Andrews
JTC1.22.45    -- Z notation Ian Toyn (deputy: Susan Stepney)
JTC1.22.14977 -- Extended BNF Roger Scowen.

4.4 ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION
As far as possible, discussions and decisions within the working group
are taken using e-mail.

4.5 RECENT MEETINGS
None.

4.6 FUTURE MEETINGS
No future meetings are currently planned.

5 DRAFT RESOLUTIONS FOR SC22
None.