Subject: SC 22 N 3597 - SC 22/WG 17 Business Plan/Convener's Report

From: Matthew Deane <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 13:37:36 -0400

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

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N3597

TITLE:
SC 22/WG 17 Business Plan/Convener's Report 

DATE ASSIGNED:
2003-07-25

SOURCE:
SC 22/WG 17 Convenor (J. Hodgson)

BACKWARD POINTER:
N/A

DOCUMENT TYPE:
Other document (Open)

PROJECT NUMBER:

STATUS:
This document will be reviewed at the upcoming SC 22 Plenary under Agenda
Item 8.9.  

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
JTC1/SC22/WG17 - Programming Language Prolog
2003/07/21

Period Covered:
September 2002 - August 2003
Submitted by:
Jonathan Hodgson
Convener, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 17
St. Joseph's University,
Philadelphia. PA 19131
USA
Email: [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

1.        Management Summary

1.1        JTC1/SC22/WG17 Statement of Scope

Development and maintenance of ISO/IEC standards related to programming
language Prolog
1.2        Project Report

1.2.1        Completed Projects

ISO/IEC 13211-2. Programming language Prolog-part 2 Modules
1.2.2        Projects Underway

Discussion of contents for a third part of ISO/IEC 13211

1.2.3        Canceled Projects

None
1.3        Cooperation and Competition

2.        Period Review

2.1        Market Requirements

Prolog is a niche language. It is extensively used by a small number of
users mainly for applications in configuration, web and CGI generation,
constraint handling and natural language. 
It is taught in a significant number of universities.

2.2        Achievements

Roger Scowen is preparing a draft on Definite Clause Grammars for potential
inclusion in Part 3.  WG17 is also following current efforts by devlopers
to create some standard libraries for Prolog. It is hoped to incorporate
these
into an ISOP standard.

2.3        Resources

WG17 meets as needed, usually once a year, and works by electronic
correspondence between meetings. Four countries are participating in
meetings: Germany, Japan, the UK, and the USA.

3.        Focus Next Work Period

With the topics for inclusion in part 3 chosen. An informal set of editors
for the drafts is in place. Once the first drafts are available for 
discussion we will seek to appoint an editor for part 3.

3.1        Deliverables
	A draft on Definite Clause grammars, anticipated late 2003 
3.2        Strategies

None.
3.2.1        Risks

WG17 suffers from a decline in interest in supporting standardization
efforts.

3.2.2        Opportunities

Options for future work were discussed at an open meeting held during the
Practical Application of Prolog and Constraints programming in London April
1999. A additional email, survey of interested parties produced a list of 
five topics for potential standardization. Although some countries indicated
a willingness to re-enter the Prolog standardization arena support is still
weak.
 
3.3        Work Program Priorities

Preparation of drafts for incorporation into a CD for a third part of
ISO/IEC 13211

4.        Other Items

This section includes items that are part of the Convener's Report, but not
part of the business plan.

WG17 needs to actively seek additional membership. The current informal work

by developers suggests that this may be posible. To this end we seek to
colocate a 
meeting of WG17 with the International Conference on Logic Programming in
2004.

4.1        Action Requests at the Forthcoming Plenary

The ISO pricing of parts 1 and 2 of the standard has not been adjusted to
take account of SC22's recommendation that standards be made available
at modest cost. WG17 requests SC22 to ask ISO to add ISO/IEC 13211 to
the list of standards avaialbe electronically at modest cost. 

4.2        Schedule

None.
4.3        WG17 Meetings

4.3.1        Recent Meetings

None.
4.3.2        Future Meetings

It is hoped to hold a meeting in 2004 clocated with the
International Conference on Logic Programming.