Subject: SC22 N2461 - Proposed JTC 1 Technical Direction/Common Strategic Characteristics

From: "william c. rinehuls" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 16:53:13 -0400 (EDT)

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

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
N2461

April 1997

TITLE:              Proposed JTC 1 Technical Directions and Common
                    Strategic Characteristics

SOURCE:             Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22

WORK ITEM:          N/A

STATUS:             N/A

CROSS REFERENCE:    N/A

DOCUMENT TYPE:      N/A

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]

___________________end of title page; beginning of text __________________

ISO/IEC JTC 1                                                         
Information Technology                                                

ISO/IEC JTC 1 N 4627                   

DATE:  1997.04.16     

REPLACES                                     

DOC TYPE:
Other document                                                        

TITLE:
Proposed JTC 1 Technical Directions and Common Strategic              
Characteristics                                                       

SOURCE:
JTC 1 Ad Hoc on JTC 1 Reengineering                                   

PROJECT:                   

STATUS:
In accordance with recommendation 5 taken at the April Ad Hoc meeting 
in Berlin, this document is circulated to JTC 1 National Bodies for a 
60-day letter ballot.  Comments received on this ballot will be       
considered at the June 1997 Ad Hoc meeting on JTC 1 reengineering in 
London.

NOTE:  This ballot has been shortened so that the responses may be 
considered at the next Ad Hoc meeting which begins on 16 June 1997.                  

ACTION ID:  LB  

DUE DATE:  1997.06.09

DISTRIBUTION:  P and L Members                                             

MEDIUM:  D

DISKETTE NO.:  119       

NO. OF PAGES:  5         

Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1, American National Standards Institute, 11 
West 42nd Street, New York, NY  10036; Telephone:  1 212 642 4932;    
Facsimile:  1 212 398 0023; Email:  [email-masked]                 

							ISO/IEC JTC 1 N 4627

Title: Proposed JTC 1 Technical Directions and Common Strategic
Characteristics

Source: JTC 1 Ad Hoc on JTC 1 Reengineering

Action: This document is circulated to JTC 1 National Bodies for a 60-day
		letter ballot.

The following Technical Directions have been identified by the JTC 1 Ad
Hoc on JTC 1 Re-engineering: 

Technical Directions
			
Data capture

Distributed application services

Identification Cards and Related Devices

Information Interchange Media

IT terminology

Multimedia and Representation	

Networking & Interconnects

Office Equipment

Programming Languages & Software 
Interfaces

Security	

Software Engineering	

User Interfaces

Descriptions of Technical Directions

Data Capture
Coding (data formats, syntax, and structure) and enabling technologies for
individually and uniquely identifying items and entities. 

Distributed Application Services
Enabling technologies for use in a distributed environment in order to
achieve concrete distributed application services. They constitute:  

  Data management functions including definition of data structures and
semantics for a complete range of datatypes, together with services and
protocols for storage, access and update of such data; 

  Specification of application functions independently of the details of
their distribution (through the use of object technology); together with
the configuration and management of those functions across enterprises.

  Distributed systems services functions such as transaction processing,
electronic messaging, directory and systems management; and for
specification of techniques used for messaging in electronic commerce. 

ID Cards and Related Devices
Interchange and manipulation of stored digital data on optical, magnetic
and/or semiconductor media, using on demand optical, magnetic, electrical
and/or RF techniques. 

Information Interchange Media
Physical characteristics of storage media using optical, magnetic or other
technologies and structure of data for storage and interchange, including
algorithms for the loss-less compression of data. 

IT Terminology
Terminology for Information Technology and related fields, intended to
achieve consistency throughout worldwide markets and users. 

Multimedia & Representation

Coding of hypermedia and multimedia and coded representation of picture,
audio and character information, including 

  - sets of compression and control functions for use with such
information,
  interchange of such information.

Networking and Interconnects
Functions necessary for establishment and control of information exchange
via networks and physical interfaces. They comprise, for communications,
interfaces and protocols, for transport, network management and selected
application services and the physical infrastructure. 

Office Equipment
Basic characteristics, performance, test methods and other related aspects
of office equipment and products such as: 

  Printers
  Copying equipment
  Digital scanners
  Facsimile equipment

Programming Languages and Software Interfaces
Programming languages, their environments and systems software interfaces,
including
		- specification techniques,
		- common facilities, and
		- language bindings.

Security
Generic frameworks, methods, techniques and mechanisms for Information and
Communication Technology security, including interfaces for invoking
security functionalities, related APIs and protocols. 

Software Engineering
Processes, supporting tools and supporting technologies for the
engineering of software products and systems. 

User Interfaces
User-system interfaces for input devices such as keyboards, mice, pointers
and pens; rules for systems control by voice recognition, presentation
techniques, dialogues, graphic symbols and icons including those for
people with special needs. 

COMMON STRATEGIC CHARACTERISTICS FOR JTC 1 STANDARDS

A purpose of IT standardization is to ensure that products available in
the marketplace have characteristics of interoperability, portability and
that can easily be adopted in different cultural environments.  Standards
which are developed within the context of the JTC 1 Technology Directions
shall reflect the requirements of the following common strategic
characteristics: 

Interoperability

The ability of two or more systems or applications to exchange information
and to mutually use the information that has been exchanged. 

Portability

The ease with which entities such as software and data can be transferred
from one system to another. 

Cultural Adaptability

The special characteristics of natural languages and the commonly accepted
rules for their use (especially in written form) which are particular to a
society or geographic area.  Examples are:  national characters and
associated elements (such as hyphens, dashes, and punctuation marks),
correct transformation of characters, dates and measures, sorting and
searching rules, coding of national entities (such as country and currency
codes), presentation of telephone numbers, and keyboard layouts. 

The requirement for JTC 1 standards to enhance and ensure Interoperability
is consistent with the approved JTC 1 Policy on Interoperability. 

These characteristics are from the attributes identified in ISO/IEC JTC 1
GII N 123, ISO/IEC JTC 1 GII Roadmap:  Guidelines for Evolution,
Management and Development of GII Standards.  While all the attributes in
this document are important and should be taken into account as
appropriate, we believe Interoperability, Portability and Cultural
Adaptability are critical to the success of JTC 1 standards. 

The applicability of these three requirements will vary across the
technology directions.  Work in each of the technology directions must
properly take in account these requirements. 
 
__________________________end of SC22 N2461 ________________________