Subject: N 3876-Japanese Contribution to the March 2005 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 2 I18NRG Meeting

From: Sally Seitz <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:47:20 -0500

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22

Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces

Secretariat:  U.S.A.  (ANSI)

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N 3876

TITLE:

Japanese Contribution to the March 2005 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22 I18NRG Meeting

DATE ASSIGNED:

2005-03-11

SOURCE:

Japanese National Body

BACKWARD POINTER:

DOCUMENT TYPE:

National Body Contribution

PROJECT NUMBER:

STATUS:

This document will be reviewed at the upcoming I18NRG meeting.  

ACTION IDENTIFIER:

FYI

DUE DATE:

DISTRIBUTION:

Text

CROSS REFERENCE:

DISTRIBUTION FORM:

open

Sally Seitz

ANSI

25 West 43rd Street

New York, NY  10036

Telephone:  (212) 642-4918

Fax:             (212) 840-2298

Email:  [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 

----------___________end of cover page, beginning of
document_____________________

Japanese position for the I18NRG meeting.

Date: 2005-03-08

============================================================================
===

We appreciate the contribution of WG20 for preparing standards for

internationalization businesses.  Language WGs can now define their

internationalization facilities utilizing these standards.

But the situation around us has been changed.  The character handling,

which has been the most important internationalization theme in SC22,

is moved to SC2.  Annex A of TR 10176 will be amended to reflect

additions of characters made by SC2, after SC2 creates a means to

specify the set of recommended characters for identifiers.

Other issues handled by WG20 seem to have less connection with the

works of language WGs.  Internationalization standards are valuable

only if they are referred to in some standards of concrete entities

such as programming languages, operating systems, etc.  We do not like

to have internationalization standards for their own sake.

Each programming language has its own interests in

internationalization.  Some of them want to have maximum

internationalization facilities, but some prefer to stay as a common

language without any localized deviations.  Thus we do not anticipate

the need for internationalization standards in SC 22 prepared

independently of programming languages, such as ones developed by

WG20.

The remaining projects handled by WG20 have become outdated and

inactive.  TR 14652 is too controversial to stand as an international

standard.  IS 15897, which highly relies on the TR, has lost

interests; no action was taken for the standard after its FCD comment

disposition meeting held in October 2003.  We see no new proposals in

these 10 years other than cultural convention and string ordering.

Based on these observations, we consider that a permanent committee

which plays an active role in proposing, designing and defining

language independent internationalization facilities is no more

needed.  SC22 disbanded WG20 in its 2004 Plenary.

Moreover, we propose to cancel all the projects of WG20, which have

been moved to SC22 in its 2004 Plenary, at this time.

In the future, needs for a forum of internationalization may arise.

Language WGs may like to have advices on internationalization

facilities, multiple WGs may have a common problem related to

internationalization, etc.  In such cases, a language WG can propose

the formation of I18NRG in an SC22 Plenary and can have its

recommendations before the next SC22 Plenary.

I18NRG should have a passive status, not an active self-defining

status.

Sally Seitz

Program Manager

ANSI

25 West 43rd Street

New York, NY 10036

Phone: (212) 642-4918

Fax: (212) 840-2298