Subject: SC 22 N 3456 - SC 22/WG 9 Business Plan/Convener's Report

From: Matthew Deane <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 13:59:04 -0400

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

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N3456

TITLE:
SC 22/WG 9 Business Plan/Convener's Report 

DATE ASSIGNED:
2002-07-29

SOURCE:
SC 22/WG 9 Convenor (J. Moore)

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 8.4.  

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 report__________

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 N 410 
Convener's Report, 2002, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 (Ada) 
Prepared by: James W. Moore, [email-masked], 15 July 2002.

This report is in the same form as past "Business Plans." Other items
are included in an additional Section 4. 

BUSINESS PLAN FOR ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 (Ada) 

PERIOD COVERED: July 2001-July 2002 

SUBMITTED BY: 

Convener of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 
James W. Moore 
The MITRE Corporation, N210 
7515 Colshire Drive 
McLean, Virginia 22102 
USA 
703.883.7396 (Office) 
703.883.5432 (Fax) 
[email-masked] 

1. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY 

1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG9 STATEMENT OF SCOPE 

Coordinate ISO standards for Programming Language Ada 

1.2 PROJECT REPORT 

1.2.1 COMPLETED PROJECTS 

22.10.01 -- IS 8652:1995 Programming Languages: Ada and ISO/IEC
8652:1995/Cor.1:2001 Technical Corrigendum
The Technical Corrigendum was published 2001-06-01. WG9 has determined
that the best strategy for updating the standard is to develop an
Amendment with completion anticipated in 2005. SC22 approved the project
subdivision in N3310. The work is currently underway.

22.10.04 -- IS 13813:1998 Generic packages of real and complex type
declarations and basic operations for Ada (including vector and matrix
types) 
WG9 has voted that this standard should be confirmed. SC22 endorsed the
request in its 2001 plenary meeting.

22.10.05 -- IS 13814:1998 Generic package of complex elementary
functions for Ada 
WG9 has voted to withdraw this standard. SC22 endorsed the request in
its 2001 plenary meeting.

22.15291-- IS 15291:1999 Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS) 
No action is requested. 

22.15942 -- TR 15942 Guidance for the use of the Ada Programming
Language in High Integrity Systems
WG9 has requested that this standard be made freely available on an
appropriate web site. The request has been approved by SC22 and JTC1 and
awaits concurrence from IEC and implementation.

22.18009 -- IS 18009, Ada Conformity Assessment
No action is requested.

1.2.2 PROJECTS UNDERWAY 

Work on the planned amendment to the Ada Language standard has begun.

Preliminary work is underway on one project: A Technical Report
providing user guidance on the Ravenscar profile, a programming idiom
permitting the use of a low-overhead run-time system in Ada programs. An
NP for this effort is anticipated during the coming year.

1.2.3 STANDARDS WITHDRAWN

22.10.02 -- IS 11430:1994 Generic Package of Elementary Functions for
Ada 
This standard has been withdrawn.

22.10.03 -- IS 11729:1994 Generic Package of Primitive Functions for Ada 
This standard has been withdrawn.

22.31 -- IS 12227:1995 SQL/Ada Module Description Language (SAMeDL) 
This standard has been withdrawn.

22.35 -- (Type 2) TR 11735:1996 EXTensions for real-time Ada 
Withdrawal of this standard was endorsed by the 2000 SC22 Plenary and
approved by JTC1. It is expected to be implemented in 2002.

1.3 COOPERATION AND COMPETITION 

There are two major professional societies in this area: the Special
Interest Group on Ada (SIG) of the Association for Computing Machinery
and Ada-Europe. The semi-annual meetings of WG9 are scheduled to
coincide with the major conferences organized by these two groups.
Officials of both organizations are active participants in the work of
WG9. Both groups have requested the status of Category C liaison with
WG9. Both requests have been "confirmed" by WG9 and have been forwarded
to SC22 for approval.

There is one major vendor consortium, the Ada Resource Association
(ARA). Informal liaison with ARA is maintained via the Chair of the US
TAG. 

The United States Department of Defense (DOD) has a continuing interest
in the Ada language. Liaison is assured because DoD funds the convener
to serve in his position. 

2.0 PERIOD REVIEW 

2.1 MARKET REQUIREMENTS 

Although support for Ada has declined in the US defense sector, Ada
remains the language of choice for major parts of the real-time,
embedded systems community. Ada usage in other sectors of the
marketplace seems to be stable. There is demand for minor improvements
while retaining the stability of the existing language. This motivates
WG9 to update the language standard by means of an Amendment rather than
a Revision.

2.2 ACHIEVEMENTS 

* Work on an amendment to the 1995 Ada language standard has commenced.

2.3 RESOURCES 

National body participation in WG9 is growing. There has been long-time
participation from Canada, Germany, Japan, UK, and US. Recently, France,
Italy and Switzerland have resumed participation. We are advised that
Russia will commence participation during the coming year.

Implementation of the planned Category C Liaisons with Ada-Europe and
SIGAda will broaden the base of technical review and support for
language standardization.

All new work item suggestions are screened by the requirement for active
support from five national bodies. This has worked well, resulting in
explicit commitments from national bodies supporting a possible project. 

WG9 uses three Rapporteur Groups to perform the drafting of its
technical documents. This allows WG9 itself to meet only twice per
year--for approximately five hours at each meeting. When appropriate,
WG9 delegates initial drafting to national bodies. The US contributed
the draft of the recently approved Technical Corrigendum. We expect to
repeat this strategy with the planned amendment to ISO/IEC 8652.

3.0 FOCUS NEXT WORK PERIOD 

3.1 DELIVERABLES 

The following deliverables are anticipated during the next 12 months: 
* An NP for a Technical Report describing use of the Ravenscar profile.

3.2 STRATEGIES 

Routine, but efficient, processing will suffice to achieve our goals. 

3.2.1 RISKS 

Unexpectedly heavy technical comment could delay any of the items
described above. WG9 has mitigated this risk by providing mechanisms for
full treatment of NB technical concerns at the WG level. 

3.2.2 OPPORTUNITIES 

National body participation in WG9 is growing. The JTC1 approval of the
resolution permitting SC22 O-members to participate in working groups
has yielded one new member for WG9. Other members will be solicited.

3.2.3 PROBLEMS

Earlier in this report, I wrote that during the coming year, we
anticipate writing an NP for a Technical Report providing user guidance
on the Ravenscar profile. It should be noted that I provided the same
report last year for this particular item. This lack of progress (in the
formal sense) is partially due to SC22. At last year's plenary, WG9
submitted a request that TR 15942 should be made publicly available. As
the request fit cleanly into JTC1 policy, it was anticipated that the
request would be routinely approved by the plenary meeting and forwarded
to JTC1 for approval at their plenary meeting. SC22 did not approve the
request, instead scheduling a letter ballot. Although approval was
obtained in the letter ballot, it was too late for the JTC1 meeting,
hence a letter ballot was scheduled for their approval. Ultimately, this
simple request was delayed by six months.

More importantly, the inability of SC22 to adhere to JTC1 policy on
public availability triggered a crisis of credibility within WG9. Many
participants in WG9 have drawn the conclusion that JTC1 policy on free
availability of TRs is not a rule to be followed, but rather a
concession to be granted or withheld at the pleasure of SC22. Academic
and industrial personnel who had planned contributions to the proposed
Technical Report now fear that the document might not be made publicly
available due to whim or caprice within SC22. As a result, key
contributors are insisting on waiting for outside publication prior to
making contributions to the document.

SC22's hesitation in adhering to clear JTC1 policy in this matter has
caused substantial harm to the ability of WG9 to progress work rapidly.
It would be appropriate for SC22 to repair this damage by taking the
following steps: (1) declaring by resolution its support of the JTC1
policy on public availability of Technical Reports; (2) delegating to
the SC22 Secretariat the authority to promptly and routinely grant
future requests via simple administrative action.

3.3 WORK PROGRAM PRIORITIES 

The Amendment described above is the most important item in WG9's
current work programme. WG9 anticipates its completion during 2005. 

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 REQUESTED BY WG9

4.1.1

SC22 is requested to approve Category C Liaison of Ada-Europe with
SC22/WG9 (SC22 N3425) and to forward the request to JTC1 for any further
necessary action.

4.1.2

SC22 is requested to approve Category C Liaison of ACM SIGAda with
SC22/WG9 (SC22 N3426) and to forward the request to JTC1 for any further
necessary action.

4.2 ACTION REQUESTED BY THE CONVENER OF WG9

SC22 is requested to endorse the application of JTC1 policy on free
availability of Technical Reports (contained in JTC1 Sendai Resolution
32) to the Technical Reports of SC22 and to delegate authority to the
SC22 Secretariat to administratively grant SC22's endorsement of
requests for free availability of SC22 Technical Reports.

4.3 FUTURE MEETINGS 

* Meeting #43, 13 December 2002, Houston, Texas, USA, with the SIGAda
conference 
* Meeting #44, 20 June 2003, Toulouse, France, with the Ada-Europe
conference

4.4 RECENT MEETINGS 

* Meeting #38, 30 June 2000, Potsdam, Germany, with the Ada-Europe
conference 
* Meeting #39, 17 November 2000, Laurel, MD, USA, with the SIGAda
conference 
* Meeting #40, 18 May 2001, Leuven, Belgium, with the Ada-Europe
conference 
* Meeting #41, 5 October 2001, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, with the
SIGAda conference 
* Meeting #42, 21 June 2002, Vienna, Austria, with the Ada-Europe
conference