Subject: SC22 N2365 - Chairman's Report on the JTC1 Plenary

From: "william c. rinehuls" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 17:44:03 -0500 (EST)

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

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
N2365

January 1996

SUBJECT:               SC22 Chairman's Report on the JTC 1 Plenary and
                       SC Chairmen's Forum Meetings on December 9-13,
                       1996 in Paris, France

SOURCE:                Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22

WORK ITEM:             N/A

STATUS:                N/A

CROSS REFERENCE:       N/A

DOCUMENT TYPE:         Chairman's Report

ACTION:                To SC22 Member Bodies, WG Conveners and HODs
                       for information.

Address reply to:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 Secretariat
William C. Rinehuls
8457 Rushing Creek Court
Springfield, VA 22153 USA
Tel:  +1 (703) 912-9680
Fax:  +1 (703) 912-2973
email: [email-masked]

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

18 December 1996

To: 	SC22 National Bodies and Working Group Conveners

Subject: JTC1 Plenary and SC Chairmen's Forum in Paris, France, 
	 9-13 December 1996
                                                                                          
I would like to report to you on the results of the JTC1 Plenary meeting
and the Subcommittee Chairmen's Forum immediately preceding it in Paris,
France, during the period 9-13 December 1996.  Please review this report
carefully since several of the items directly affect us.

A number of topics of interest to SC22 were discussed, as follows: 

* Agenda items specifically mentioning SC22. 

  * JTC1 instructed the JTC1 Secretariat to request approval from the ISO
and IEC Councils to place on the World Wide Web the Technical Corrigenda
and Records of Responses to ISO/IEC 9899, Programming Language C. 

* Migration Plan to the Modified DIS Procedure.  JTC1 approved document
JTC1 N4469 which described the migration plan to the new modified DIS
procedure.  I have distributed a separate document, SC22 N2359, dealing
with this subject. 

* JTC1 Strategy for Implementation of Information Technology.  JTC1
approved the Web implementation timeline in JTC1 N4475, as proposed by the
Ad Hoc on IT in October.  We will distribute this document shortly; there
has been difficulty in distributing the timeline chart electronically and
I just obtained a copy at the JTC1 plenary.  The important aspect of this
plan is that JTC1 intends to eliminate both paper distribution and floppy
distribution by the end of 1997.  By December, 1997, all documents should
be available on the World Wide Web and participants will be expected to
access them from the appropriate web site.  Documents that are not in a
JTC1-approved format will be scanned ("fax" type, not OCR scanning). 
Password or other appropriate protection will be applied in accordance
with whatever policy is in effect at the time. 

  JTC1 passed a resolution strongly requesting the ISO and IEC councils to
grant JTC1 the authority to continue to make project-related documents, up
to but not including the DIS stage, freely available in electronic as well
as paper form.  JTC1 also passed a resolution asking the ISO Central
Secretariat to re-formulate its revised copyright policy so as not to
discourage significant technical contributions, citing the fact that these
contributions in early standards development efforts often carry
copyrights from the contributing organization or individual that will not
be surrendered until the DIS stage.  Both resolutions had been recommended
by the Ad Hoc on Implementation of IT.

  JTC1 requested its NBs and SCs to review the following output documents
of the last Ad Hoc meeting:

    -- JTC1 N4243, Guidelines on the Creation and Maintenance of Web
Servers and Pages; 
    -- JTC1 N4244 revised, Draft Transition Plan; 
    -- JTC1 N4246 revised, Policy on Electronic Document Distribution; 
    -- JTC1 N4367, Electronic Tips and Techniques Guide. 

  The deadline for comments is 31 January 1997 in order to be in time for
the next meeting.  If you have comments relating to SC22 use of any of
these documents, let me know.  If you have general comments, please send
them in through your National Body.

  The next meeting of this Ad Hoc on IT will be 25-27 February 1997 in the
Washington, DC area.  I plan to participate.  Another Ad Hoc meeting is
scheduled for 23-25 June 1997 in Copenhagen. 

* JTC1 Re-engineering.  A number of actions resulted from the JTC1 review
of the ad hoc meetings in New York in late October and during the plenary
in Paris: 

  -- JTC1 approved a revised statement of JTC1's scope, mission,
principles and objectives in document JTC1 N4473. 

  -- JTC1 approved a New Work Item Proposal Acceptance Criteria in
document JTC1 N4477.  All NPs will be required to include a completed NP
Project Acceptance Criteria form in addition to the NP form currently
required.

  -- JTC1 approved a Business Plan Outline/Template in document JTC1 N4478
for use by JTC1 and its SCs.  This incorporates the project report that is
currently part of the SC Secretariat Report to JTC1 but adds a significant
amount of additional information on market requirements, achievements and
resources, as well as deliverables, strategies, risks, opportunities and
priorities for the next work period.  We will need input from every
working group for this business plan.  It will be an agenda item for our
next plenary. 

  -- JTC1 established a process to implement the project cancellations
recommended by the Ad Hoc in October.  No SC22 projects were recommended
for cancellation.  However, the "special action"  recommendations in JTC1
N4302 did include a requirement for SC22 to review its work program for
market relevance, which we will need to address at our plenary.  I will
distribute a separate document on this. 

  -- All future SC Secretariat reports to JTC1 will be required to
highlight project subdivisions indicating the level of SC National Body
support and rationale for each.

  The Ad Hoc was continued for another period and directed to further
define the JTC1 technology directions, prepare the definition and
procedures for Business Teams (a new concept for JTC1), review the current
JTC1 structure and mode of operation against the technology directions and
recommend changes as appropriate.  The next meeting of the Ad Hoc on
Reengineering will be held 7-11 April 97 in Berlin, with another scheduled
16-20 June 1997 in London.  I intend to participate. 

* SWG-GII.  I participated in the last day of the SWG-GII meeting on 6
December 1996, and discussed the input that I submitted on behalf of SC22.
My report to you on this is in a separate document.  At the JTC1 plenary,
JTC1 approved continuation of the SWG-GII activities and requested SCs "to
provide a technical resource to the SWG-GII by identifying focal points in
each SC that are kept informed of SWG-GII activities by e-mail and are
called upon for review of GII material."  I would appreciate a volunteer
for this important activity.

  JTC1 also authorized SWG-GII to conduct an "Operations Roundtable"  with
consortia, fora, etc. involved in GII standards development.  This is
expected to be held in July, 1997.

* Pilot of a New Procedure for Maintenance of Mature Standards.  SC21
proposed a new procedure for the maintenance of mature standards (in JTC1
N4353) and described it in greater detail in JTC1 N4352.  JTC1 authorized
SC21 to initiate a pilot test of the new procedure and report back to JTC1
in September 1997.  Also, the Ad Hoc on Reengineering was asked to review
these documents for possible use within other JTC1 subcommittees.  There
are some interesting features of this pilot procedure but it appears to me
that the full proposal would be overkill for us in SC22.  I welcome your
comments for my participation in the Ad Hoc on Reengineering.

* SC7 Terms of Reference.  A number of concerns were expressed prior to
the last JTC1 plenary about the proposed new terms of reference for SC7.
At this plenary, JTC1 approved a revised statement for the SC7 area of
work which appears to be a significant improvement.  Following is the
statement from the plenary but it was agreed that it would be reformatted
according to the JTC1 Directives: 

  "Standardization of processes, supporting tools and supporting
technologies for the engineering of software products and systems.
  Note:  The processes, tools and technologies are within the scope of
JTC1 terms of references and exclude specific tools and technologies that
have been assigned by JTC1 to other of its SCs."

* Results of Workshop on Standards for the Use of Models that Define the
Data and Processes of Information Systems.  (You will recall that our WG22
had a representative at this workshop.)  JTC1 requested its SCs to take
note of the report of this workshop in document JTC1 N4345, especially
recommendation 2.1 which recommended that SCs recognize the proliferation
of modeling languages and the duplications of efforts in producing and
using modeling standards. 

* Joint Workshop on the Registration of Metadata.  As a result of
recommendations from the above workshop, and of requests from SC14 and
SC21, JTC1 approved a proposal for a Joint Workshop on the Registration of
Metadata (JTC1 N4361 and N 4346).  JTC1 encouraged the groups mentioned in
N4361, which includes SC22/WG22, to participate in the workshop..  It is
expected to be held in the United States during the summer of 1997.

* PAS Submissions.  The PAS (Publicly Available Specifications) process
has developed somewhat more slowly than anticipated.  JTC1 encouraged its
SCs and NBs to identify candidate PASs and actively work with the relevant
potential PAS submitter to promote these PASs within JTC1.

We will be distributing copies of the above JTC1 documents as they become
available. 

Robert H. Follett 
Chairman 

____________________ end of document SC22 N2365 ___________________