From rinehuls@access.digex.net Fri May 30 22:35:20 1997 Received: from access1.digex.net (access1.digex.net [205.197.245.192]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id WAA17381 for ; Fri, 30 May 1997 22:35:17 +0200 Received: from localhost (rinehuls@localhost) by access1.digex.net (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id QAA21787 for ; Fri, 30 May 1997 16:35:26 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 16:35:25 -0400 (EDT) From: "william c. rinehuls" To: sc22docs@dkuug.dk Subject: SC22 N2482 - WG13 Business Plan and Convener's Report 1997 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ___________________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 N2482 June 1997 TITLE: WG13 Business Plan and WG13 Convener's Report for the August 1997 JTC 1/SC22 Plenary SOURCE: Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 WORK ITEM: N/A STATUS: Please note that consideration of this Report and Business Plan will be an agenda item for the August 1997 SC22 Plenary. CROSS REFERENCE: N/A DOCUMENT TYPE: Convener's Report ACTION To SC22 Member Bodies for review. 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: rinehuls@access.digex.net ______________end of title page; beginning of text ____________________ Business Plan and Convener's Report ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG13 (Modula-2) Document ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG13 D253 PERIOD COVERED: June 1996 - May 1997 SUBMITTED BY: Convener of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG13 Dr. Martin Schoenhacker Vienna University of Technology Institute of Computer Graphics Karlsplatz 13/186-1 A-1040 Vienna, Austria Phone: +43 1 58801 4079 Fax: +43 1 5042583 EMail: schoenhacker@eiunix.tuwien.ac.at 1. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY 1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG13 STATEMENT OF SCOPE Development of ISO/IEC Standards related to the programming language Modula-2. 1.2 PROJECT REPORT 1.2.1 COMPLETED PROJECTS JTC1.22.18.01 -- IS 10514-1 Modula-2, Base Language IS 10514-1 was published in June 1996. So far, no serious problems have been reported. 1.2.2 PROJECTS UNDERWAY JTC1.22.18.02 -- DIS 10514-3 Objected Oriented Modula-2 DIS 10514-3 was submitted to ITTF for DIS ballot in May 1997. It is hoped that the ballot results will be available before the end of 1997, and a meeting will be scheduled early next year to handle the Disposition of Comments and hopefully prepare the publication of the final text. JTC1.22.18.04 -- DIS 10514-2 Generics in Modula-2 DIS 10514-2 was submitted to ITTF for DIS ballot in May 1997. It is hoped that the ballot results will be available before the end of 1997, and a meeting will be scheduled early next year to handle the Disposition of Comments and hopefully prepare the publication of the final text. JTC1.22.15436 -- Interfacing Modula-2 to C This project to produce a Type 3 Technical Report has been assigned to WG13 following a letter ballot in January 1997. It is currently in Working Draft stage, but is expected to have moved to PDTR submission stage by the time of the 1997 SC22 Plenary. Depending on the maturity of the draft, WG13 may ask for SC22's permission to conduct parallel letter ballots for PDTR registration and voting on the document. This internal decision is scheduled for July 1997. 1.2.3 CANCELLED PROJECTS As requested by WG13 at the 1996 SC22 Plenary, the following projects formerly assigned to WG13 have been terminated: JTC1.22.03 -- Modula-2 to Posix Binding The person originally holding the main responsibility for this project was unable to devote further work to this item. Also, it was felt that a more general solution would be more feasible. Therefore, this project was withdrawn in favor of JTC1.22.15436 (Interfacing Modula-2 to C) which takes a more general view. JTC1.22.05 -- Support for Commercial Programming in Modula-2 There was little support for this project, and WG13 decided its efforts would be better spent on the other projects mentioned in 1.2.2. JTC1.22.06 -- Further support for Concurrent Programming in Modula-2 There was little support for this project, and WG13 decided its efforts would be better spent on the other projects mentioned in 1.2.2. 1.2.4 COOPERATION AND COMPETITION WG13 has always tried to cooperate with as many compiler writers as possible, and contacts to industry still work quite well. Although the general public is unfortunately not well aware of Modula-2, there are various important applications. In particular, the language is being used in the implementation of safety-critical and/or embedded systems, e.g. in car electronics and automated train control. Also, it is being used as the implementation language for a word processing package with an installed base of more than 20.000 copies, as well as for teaching purposes at various universities. Where appropriate, WG13 has established contact with other SC22 working groups. There is no apparent direct competition with any other efforts. 2.0 PERIOD REVIEW 2.1 MARKET REQUIREMENTS WG13 reacted to strong demands by the Modula-2 user community in preparing extensions to IS 10514-1. In particular, there was popular demand for Object Oriented Extensions, and it is hoped that the current effort in project JTC1.22.18.02 will lead to a uniform way of handling these extensions in the available compilers. With regard to Generics, there was popular demand mainly from academia which has also been met in project JTC1.22.18.04. Finally, the requirement for interfacing to libraries defined in the C language is being handled by project JTC1.22.15436. WG13 is currently not aware of any other demands or concerns regarding Modula-2. 2.2 ACHIEVEMENTS IS 10514-1 (Modula-2, Base Language) was published in June 1996. DIS 10514-2 (Generics in Modula-2) and DIS 10514-3 (Object Oriented Extensions) have been submitted to ITTF for DIS ballot in May 1997. The WG13 Web site at http://sc22wg13.twi.tudelft.nl/ was further expanded and now also hosts the Modula-2 FAQ, a problem report section, and references to related publications. 2.3 RESOURCES Although resources in general are declining, the future of the current WG13 projects seems to be secured. There are project editors and backup project editors for all the active projects, as well as for the completed Base Language Standard. 3.0 FOCUS NEXT WORK PERIOD For the upcoming work period, WG13's main task will be the resolution of DIS comments and hopefully the publication of the final text of 10514-2 and 10514-3. Also, work on the Technical Report on Interfacing Modula-2 to C will have to be progressed as quickly as possible. 3.1 DELIVERABLES It is anticipated that DIS 10514-2 and DIS 10514-3 will be approved by the end of 1997 and can then be published in early 1998. Project JTC1.22.15436 is expected to produce a next working draft by July 1997, which will then be submitted to SC22 as a Type 3 PDTR, given that WG13 agrees on the maturity of the document. 3.2 STRATEGIES It is expected that routine handling will suffice to complete the progress of documents 10514-2 and 10514-3 to IS status. With regard to project JTC1.22.15436, WG13 may decide to ask the SC22 Plenary for permission to submit the next working draft for concurrent PDTR registration and ballot. This will be decided upon internally in July 1997. 3.2.1 RISKS Unexpectedly heavy technical comment could delay any of the strategies described above. However, no problems are anticipated. 3.2.2 OPPORTUNITIES To speed up the process, WG13 is considering concurrent PDTR registration and balloting as stated above. 3.3 WORK PROGRAM PRIORITIES The publication of 10514-2 and 10514-3 will certainly have topmost priority over the following year. In addition, WG13 will aim at progressing project JTC1.22.15436 as quickly as possible, as there appears to be significant popular demand for such a Technical Report. Although the working group has shrunk significantly since its early days, the remaining people are all very committed and will be able to handle these tasks in a professional and timely fashion. 4. OTHER ITEMS This section lists other items that are not part of the "Business Plan" but are appropriate for Convener's Report. 4.1 POSSIBLE ACTION REQUEST AT FORTHCOMING PLENARY WG13 may request concurrent PDTR registration and ballot for the document produced by project JTC1.22.15436. However, this will have to be decided by WG13 in July 1997, and the request will be made by the WG13 representative at the SC22 Plenary if appropriate. 4.2 APPOINTMENT OF NEW CONVENER At the last SC22 Plenary in London, September 1996, Martin Schoenhacker (Austria) was appointed the new convener of WG13. He follows Cornelis Pronk (Netherlands) who had served as an interim convener since the 1995 SC22 Plenary. 4.3 PROJECT EDITORS The following individuals have been appointed project editors and backup project editors, respectively: JTC1.22.18.01 -- Modula-2, Base Language Cornelis Pronk (main), Martin Schoenhacker (backup) JTC1.22.18.02 -- Object Oriented Modula-2 Albert Wiedemann (main), John Lancaster (backup JTC1.22.18.04 -- Generics in Modula-2 Richard J. Sutcliffe (main), Cornelis Pronk (backup) JTC1.22.15436 -- Interfacing Modula-2 to C Eberhard Enger (main), Martin Schleusser (backup) 4.4 ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION WG13 has been working over e-mail for a considerable time now, and recent decisions within the working group have mostly been taken using e-mail. This seems the only practical way for the future, in particular as travel budget appear to be shrinking everywhere. In addition to the e-mail reflector, WG13 has its own ftp and Web sites which have recently been expanded to offer more services (e.g. FAQ and Publications) to the Modula-2 community. 4.5 RECENT MEETING The 11th meeting of WG13 took place at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom, June 3rd-6th, 1996. The 12th meeting of WG13 took place at the University of Linz, Linz, Austria, March 17th-18th, 1997. 4.6 FUTURE MEETINGS As soon as the end date of the DIS ballots for documents 10514-2 and 10514-3 is known, a meeting will be scheduled to handle the Disposition of Comments and the preparation of the final text for both items. There are standing offers to host the meeting from Langley (B.C., Canada), Munich (Germany) and Vienna (Austria). The date will likely be January or February 1998. Work on project JTC1.22.15436 will be progressed using e-mail. WG13 feels no need to schedule a meeting for this purpose alone. ___________________end of SC22 N2482 _______________________________