From rinehuls@access.digex.net Mon Jul 28 23:54:30 1997 Received: from access2.digex.net (qlrhmEbBUV1EY@access2.digex.net [205.197.245.193]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id XAA24987 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 23:54:25 +0200 Received: from localhost (rinehuls@localhost) by access2.digex.net (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id RAA27898 for ; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:54:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 17:54:22 -0400 (EDT) From: "william c. rinehuls" To: sc22docs@dkuug.dk Subject: SC22 N2533 - WG5 Business Plan and Conveners Report for August Plenary Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE ____________________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 N2533 August 1997 TITLE: WG5 Business Plan and WG5 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 this Report contains a number of action items for SC22 approval at the August 1997 SC22 Plenary. The Report will be considered under Agenda Item 8.3. CROSS REFERENCE:=20 N/A DOCUMENT TYPE: Convener's Report ACTION: To SC22 Member Bodies for review and action. 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 report _________ WG5 Business Plan and Convener's Report to ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 1997 Plenary PERIOD COVERED BY THIS REPORT: August 1996 - July 1997 SUBMITTED BY: Convener of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 (Dr. Miles Ellis, Director: Educational Technology Resources Centre, University of Oxford, 37 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JF, England. Phone: +44 1865 270528, Fax: +44 1865 270527, Email: Miles.Ellis@etrc.ox.ac.uk) 1 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY 1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG5 Statement of Scope The development and maintenance of ISO/IEC Fortran programming language standards. 1.2 Project Report Additional information concerning WG5's current projects is annexed as WG5 N1286. 1.2.1 Completed Projects 22.02.01.01 Programming Language Fortran - Part 1: Base Language The DIS ballot for this Standard ended in February 1997. There were several minor comments accompanying YES votes, and a NO vote from France on the grounds that the French title (created by ITTF) was incorrect. This issue has been resolved and the final text was submitted to ITTF for publication in June 1997. 1.2.2 Projects Underway 22.02.01.02 Type 2 TR on Floating Point Exception Handling in Fortran The concurrent Registration and PDTR Approval ballots for this project ended in March 1997. Despite the unanimous approval an error was subsequently discovered which slightly delayed subsequent progress. The draft DTR was submitted to SC22 for its DTR ballot in July 1997. 22.02.01.03 Type 2 TR on Interoperability between Fortran and C This has proved more complex than anticipated. However a draft PDTR w= as submitted for concurrent Registration and Approval ballots in April 1997; = the ballots will end on September 11, 1997. 22.02.01.04 Type 2 TR on Enhanced Data Type Facilities in Fortran The concurrent Registration and PDTR Approval ballots for this project ended in March 1997. There were a number of minor comments which have now been processed. The draft DTR was submitted to SC22 for its DTR ballot in July 1997. 22.02.02 Programming Language Fortran - Part 2: Varying length character strings The non-normative annexe of this Standard is being revised to take advantage of the facilities of Fortran 95. However, work on the revision has identified certain difficulties which are currently being resolved. It is hoped to have a draft CD ready for balloting later this year. 22.02.03 Programming Language Fortran - Part 3: Conditional Compilation A draft CD will be submitted for combined Registration and Approval ballots later this year. 1.2.3 Cancelled Projects None 1.2.4 Cooperation and Competition WG5 cooperates closely with the ANSI NCITS/J3 Fortran Technical Committee, to whom it has delegated the technical development of Fortran 2000 as well as the maintenance of Fortran 95 (IS 1539-1:1997). There is also close contact with the industry-driven High Performance Fortran Consortium, with many members of the HPF Consortium also being members of J3 and/or WG5. Many of those responsible for the development of commercial Fortran compilers are members of J3 and/or WG5. Other important liaisons are those with IFIP WG2.5 (Numerical Software) and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG20 (Internationalization). There are no competitive activities. 2 PERIOD REVIEW 2.1 Market Requirements Fortran is still the language of choice for the majority of scientific and technological programming, although the damage caused by the long delay between Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 has still not been reversed. However there are now signs of growing use of Fortran 90, and the recent introduction of two commercial subsets designed for educational use (F from Imagine, Inc and Elf90 from Lahey Computing Systems, Inc) is generating increased interest in Fortran from the higher education sector. This growth in interest, however, means that it is important that the development of the language can react quickly to market requirements, while still ensuring that the safeguards of full international review are maintained. (Fortran is used by a community which expects that today's programs will still be running in 25 years' time, and there are unlikely to be any deletions from the language in the foreseeable future; any deletions that are proposed are subject, therefore, to extensive review and consultation.) In order to react effectively to new requirements without causing unacceptable delay to the processing of the main Standard, WG5 decided in 1995 to process certain high priority new features which were too late to be included in the Fortran 95 revision as Type 2 Technical Reports, with a guarantee that the feature would be incorporated unaltered in the next revision of the base Standard unless experience in implementation or use showed that a modification was necessary. The intent of this procedure was to encourage implementors to add these features to their compilers without waiting for the next revision of the main language Standard. Two such TRs, covering floating point exception handling and enhanced data types are about to be submitted for their final DTR approval ballots, while a third, concerning interoperability between Fortran and C, is currently in the process of being balloted for PDTR approval. Another perceived market requirement is for a form of conditional compilation to simplify the transfer of programs between many platforms. This is being processed as an additional Part of the Fortran Standard, as it is not currently intended that it should be a requirement for all Standard-conforming compilers. It is expected that the draft CD will be submitted for its first approval ballot later this year. WG5 has developed a database of requirements for future versions of Fortran during the last five years since the publication of Fortran 90, and this formed the basis of a year-long analysis of the features which should be added to the base language in the next revision, informally known as Fortran 2000. Finally, it is worth noting that over 50% of the code in the widely used SPEC benchmark suite is written in Fortran. 2.2 Achievements The latest revision of the base Fortran Standard has been approved and is currently awaiting publication. At a joint meeting with ANSI NCITS/J3 in Las Vegas in February 1997, the proposed content of the next revision (Fortran 2000) was finalised. 2.3 Resources As elsewhere in the Standardization world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to persuade employers to provide the necessary funding for Standards activity. Nevertheless, this has been a good year for WG5 with 38 people from seven countries attending the joint meeting with J3 in Las Vegas in February, and 25 people from seven countries attending WG5's regular meeting in Vienna in July. In addition members from other countries, notably France and Russia, are active in email discussions although unable to attend meetings. 3 FOCUS FOR NEXT WORK PERIOD 3.1 Deliverables It is anticipated that the TRs on Floating point exception handling (PDTR 15580) and enhanced data types (PDTR 15581) will be approved by the end of 1997 or very shortly thereafter, while the TR on interoperability between Fortran and C (PDTR 15815) and the new part 3 of the Standard (Conditional Compilation) will, hopefully, be approved by the summer of 1998. It is expected that the revision of IS 1539-2 (Varying length character strings) will proceed to Final CD stage during the next year. 3.2 Strategies WG5 operates under a strategic plan described in WG5 Standing Document 4, whose latest revision is annexed to this report as WG5 N1287. In particular, the revision of the base Standard, IS 1539-1, is delegated to ANSI NCITS/J3 operating as WG5's Prima= ry Development Body, while the other projects for which WG5 is responsible are handled by other Development Bodies which liaise with the Primary development Body as required. 3.2.1 Risks As far as possible, WG5 tries to anticipate technical comments during international ballots by holding informal ballots of its members before any documents are submitted for ballot. Nevertheless, unexpected technical comments can always delay the planned schedule. 3.2.2 Opportunities WG5 has made extensive use of email for over a decade to speed up technical development. Since 1995 most documents have been distributed via an official file server in the UK, with two mirror sites in the USA. A web site is also used to provide static and non-technical information. This system is currently being revised in accordance with the latest JTC1 guidelines. In addition to speeding up the distribution of documents, the use of electronic distribution and communication systems also provides many other benefits, such as the ability to rapidly carry out informal ballots of the members for various reasons. 3.3 Work Program Priorities Publication of the two TRs on Floating point exception handling (PDTR 15580) and enhanced data types (PDTR 15581) is our top priority for 1997-98. Second priority is the publication of the third TR on interoperability between Fortran and C. Third priority is the progression of Part 3 of the Standard (Conditional Compilation to Final CD stage. 4 OTHER ITEMS 4.1 Action Requested at Forthcoming SC22 Plenary 4.1.1 Project Editor for the Revision of ISO/IEC IS 1539-1:1997 WG5 requests SC22 to appoint Richard Maine (USA) as Project Editor for the revision of the base Fortran Standard - ISO/IEC IS 1539-1:1997. [Richard Maine was the Project Editor for the revision which produced the text of ISO/IEC IS 1539-1:1997] 4.1.2 Extension of Scope of Project 22.02.02 WG5 currently has approval to revise the non-normative annexe to ISO/IEC IS 1539-2:1994, which contains an example Fortran 90 module which could be used to implement the normative part of the Standard. During the preliminary work on this revision it has become apparent that it would be useful to make some minor revisions to the normative text of the Standard, and WG5 therefore requests SC22 to extend the scope of the project to allow revision of the normative text in addition to the non-normative text. 4.1.3 Simultaneous CD Registration and CD Approval Ballots for Revision= of ISO/IEC IS 1539-2:1994 WG5 requests the approval of SC22 to carry out simultaneous registration and approval ballots for the forthcoming CD of the revised Part 2 of the Fortran Standard (ISO/IEC IS 1539-2) 4.2 Electronic Document Distribution As noted above, WG5 plans to move to exclusive electronic distribution of all documents later in 1997, having been distributing in this form to almost all members since 1995. In accordance with the recommendations of the JTC1 Ad Hoc Group on the Implementation of IT, WG5 will, at the same time, reorganise its document database so that documents can be accessed directly from the WG5 web pages, as well as directly from the ftp server. Appropriate access control mechanisms will also be introduced where necessa= ry. Subject to confirmation, the WG5 www and ftp servers will also move from their present locations to a new site - which also hosts the www and ftp servers for WG5's Primary Development Body (ANSI NCITS/J3). 4.3 Recent Meetings 1997/2/10-14 Las Vegas, USA This was a joint meeting with ANSI NCITS/J3. 1997/7/21-25 Vienna, Austria 4.4 Future Meetings (Note that WG5 normally meets annually, with extra meetings being held as/when necessary to process ballot comments or other high priority activities which do not accord with the regular meeting schedule. WG5's Primary Development Body, ANSI NCITS/J3, meets quarterly. Other work is carried out via email.) 1998/6/8-12 Trollh=E4ttan, Sweden 1999 France or UK 2000 Finland 2001 UK (unless the UK hosts the 1999 meeting) 4.5 Annexed Documents WG5 N1286 SC22 Project Information (WG5 Standing Document 3) WG5 N1287 Strategic Plan for Fortran Standardization (WG5 Standing Document 4) ---------------- Annexe A - WG5 Project Information ------------- ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1= 286 WG5 Standing Documen= t 3 15 July 1= 997 SC22 Project Information: WG5 - Fortran Work Item 22.02.01.01 Programming Language Fortran - 1: Base language (Revision of IS 1539:1991) Project Editor: Richard Maine (USA) Current ITTF Registered Document: DIS 1539-1 Current Reference Documents: DIS 1539-1 Stage Process Target Date Actual Date 3 CD submitted for registration 95-06 95-05 CD ballot initiated 95-06 95-06 CD ballot comments circulated 95-10 95-10 4 DIS registered 96-03 96-07 DIS ballot initiated 96-04 96-09 DIS ballot comments circulated 96-08 97-04 5 Final text of DIS sent to ITTF 96-09 97-06 Standard published 96-10 Work Item 22.02.01.02 Type 2 TR on Floating Point Exception Handling Project Editor: John Reid (UK) Current ITTF Registered Document: PDTR 15580 Current Reference Documents: N2319 (PDTR), WG5 N1281 (draft DTR) Stage Process Target Date Actual Date 2 Subdivision of Work Item authorized 95-09 95-09 3 PDTR submitted for registration 96-10 96-10 PDTR ballot initiated 96-10 96-11 PDTR ballot comments circulated 97-02 97-03 4 DTR registered 97-04 DTR ballot initiated 97-04 DTR ballot comments circulated 97-08 5 Amended document sent to ITTF 97-09 Technical Report published 97-10 Work Item 22.02.01.02 Type 2 TR on Interoperability Between Fortran and C Project Editor: Michael Hennecke (Germany) Current ITTF Registered Document: PDTR 15815 Current Reference Documents: N2468 (PDTR) Stage Process Target Date Actual Date 2 Subdivision of Work Item authorized 95-09 95-09 3 PDTR submitted for registration 97-03 97-04 PDTR ballot initiated 97-03 97-05 PDTR ballot comments circulated 97-07 4 DTR registered 97-09 DTR ballot initiated 97-09 DTR ballot comments circulated 98-01 5 Amended document sent to ITTF 98-02 Technical Report published 98-03 Work Item 22.02.01.02 Type 2 TR on Enhanced Data Type Facilities Project Editor: Malcolm Cohen (UK) Current ITTF Registered Document: PDTR 15581 Current Reference Documents: N2318 (PDTR), WG5 N1282 (draft DTR) Stage Process Target Date Actual Date 2 Subdivision of Work Item authorized 95-09 95-09 3 PDTR submitted for registration 96-10 96-10 PDTR ballot initiated 96-10 96-11 PDTR ballot comments circulated 97-02 97-03 4 DTR registered 97-04 DTR ballot initiated 97-04 DTR ballot comments circulated 97-08 5 Amended document sent to ITTF 97-09 Technical Report published 97-10 Work Item 22.02.02 Programming Language Fortran - Part 2: Varying length character strings (Revision of non-normative annexe of IS 1539-2:1994) Project Editor: Lawrie Schonfelder (UK) Current ITTF Registered Document: IS 1539-2 : 1994 Current Reference Documents: (none) Stage Process Target Date Actual Date 3 CD submitted for registration 97-10 Final CD ballot initiated 97-11 Final CD ballot comments circulated 98-05 4 DIS registered 98-07 DIS ballot initiated 98-07 DIS ballot result circulated 98-10 5 Standard published 99-02 Work Item 22.02.03 Programming Language Fortran - Part 3: Conditional Compilation Project Editor: David Epstein (USA) Current ITTF Registered Document: (none) Current Reference Documents: WG5 1283 (draft CD) Stage Process Target Date Actual Date 3 CD submitted for registration 97-09 Final CD ballot initiated 97-09 Final CD ballot comments circulated 98-03 4 DIS registered 98-05 DIS ballot initiated 98-05 DIS ballot result circulated 98-08 5 Standard published 98-12 ------------- Annexe B - WG5 Strategic Plan -------------------- ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1= 287 WG5 Standing Documen= t 4 24 July 1= 997 Strategic Plan for Fortran Standardization The international standard for Fortran is a multi-part set of standards. Part 1 defines the base language; other parts define optional auxiliary standards. 1. Mission (the goal to achieve) The mission of WG5 is to be responsive to changing technology and user needs by establishing procedures whereby all parts of the international Fortran standard are updated and revised in accordance with ISO procedures. The standard will be developed and maintained by a broad and balanced international group of users, vendors, and academics, collectively providing appropriate expertise= =2E 2. Vision (desired effect of achieving the goal) The international scientific and engineering community will be provided with a single worldwide Fortran standard that be a modern language with high quality data abstraction and user extensibility features for high performance numerical, scientific and engineering programming. 3. Strategies (functions to achieve the goal) 3.1 Two major functions There are two major functions: (1) identification of needs and specification of standard requirements and (2) development of standard document content and maintenance of the current standard. Other activities include scheduling, performing liaison and review activities, and conducting ad hoc studies. The requirements and development functions should be separate but highly coordinated. 3.2 Requirements as the "what" function The result of requirements specification is a document that prescribes the functional requirements for a revision of the base language standard or of related standards. Draft documents (standards, amendments, corrigenda, technical reports, etc.) will be submitted to ISO for adoption. WG5, on a continuing basis, determines, records, distributes, and maintains the needs and suggested requirements for Fortran. To begin a new revision WG5, using the recorded needs and suggested requirements, establishes objectives and corresponding functional requirements, specifications, and schedule for that revision. 3.3 Development as the "how" function The development function develops the international standard revisions, corrigenda, amendments, and related auxiliary standards, in accordance with the specified requirements and schedule. A development body will be chosen to produce each revision or new auxiliary standard. The development body for a revision of the base Fortran standard is the primary development body. It is the responsibility of each development body to determine how the requirements are to be met and to prepare the corresponding draft document. Revisions of the Fortran standard will incorporate approved corrections as well as fully implemented requirements. Maintenance of a standard involves correcting errors that are discovered in the standard and providing official interpretations for those parts of the standard that are found to be unclear or incompletely specified. A corrigendum that incorporates corrections resulting from this maintenance activity will be produced periodically. 3.4 Scheduling WG5 will determine the approximate target date for each revision of the base standard - typically between five and ten years - and will negotiate with the primary development body a detailed schedule consistent with this target. For other development work WG5 will negotiate an appropriate schedule with the corresponding development body. Activities involving maintenance of the current standard will take place concurrently with the development activities. 3.5 The multi-part standard and technical reports Some needs may be met most effectively with auxiliary standards rather than by revision of the base standard. Such an auxiliary standard is related to the base standard in some significant way; each auxiliary standard is a separate part of the Fortran standard, with Part 1 being the base language. Standard-conforming implementations must accommodate the whole of Part 1; the other parts are optional. Because of the serious potential for incompatibilities arising from uncoordinated extension activities, WG5 requests that all bodies developing auxiliary standards coordinate their work closely with the primary development body and requires that the work be technically acceptable to the primary development body before approval by WG5. At some point it may become appropriate to incorporate an auxiliary standard into the base standard. WG5 will accomplish this by assigning the integration to the primary development body, with assistance from the development body responsible for maintenance of the auxiliary standard. 3.6 Liaison and review activities It is the responsibility of WG5 and the development bodies to establish liaison or contact with and review the work of other organizations whose work items relate to the Fortran standards effort. A list of such organizations is maintained in WG5 Standing Document 6, WG5 Liaison Activities. 3.7 Conducting ad hoc studies It is the responsibility of WG5 to determine whether studies are needed to aid the identification and requirements specification processes. WG5 may carry out such ad hoc studies or may request one or more participating member bodies to carry out such studies. 4 Tactics (implementing the strategies) 4.1 Principal responsibilities of WG5 WG5 will: (a) maintain a repository of suggested requirements (Standing Document 5) (b) define revision objectives and select the corresponding functional requirements for development after comprehensive review (c) determine whether a given requirement can best be met by a revision of a part of the Fortran standard, the addition of a new part of the Fortran standard or by a technical report (d) choose the development bodies and delegate all development and draft document preparation to them (e) monitor development (Where progress is not consistent with the schedule WG5 will, together with the development body, determine if corrective action can be taken by the development body; if this is not possible it will be necessary for WG5 to reassign some or all items to another development body, or to delete some items from the specification or to revise the schedule) (f) monitor maintenance activities (g) determine whether a final draft document is adequate and consistent with the specified requirements (h) submit draft documents to ISO (i) commission Technical Report projects, as needed, as described in WG5-N1152. The WG5 Convenor will when appropriate conduct letter ballots of the members to assist in reaching decisions between meetings. 4.2 Principal responsibilities of the development bodies A development body will: (a) nominate a project editor (b) produce a draft document to meet the agreed schedule and specified requirements (c) establish a document production system that will allow the most recent electronic version of any proposed standard to be available to all members of WG5 and the development body (d) coordinate with other development bodies and organizations, as appropriate. 4.3 The Schedule The specific schedules for the current WG5 projects are detailed in WG5 Standing Document 3, SC22 Project Information. The usual schedule for a standard, or revision of a standard, has the following general form: Initial requirements prepared Review of requirements completed Final definition of requirements Completion of separate edits First working draft available WG5 approval of the Committee Draft (CD) 6 months expec= ted First CD submitted for registration and approval 1 First CD ballot initiated 1 First CD ballot comments available 4 Final CD submitted for approval 5 Final CD ballot initiated 1 Final CD ballot comments available 5 WG5 approval of the Draft International Standard (DIS) 1 DIS registered 2 DIS ballot initiated 1 DIS ballot results available 3 Standard published 2 4.4 Fortran maintenance bodies WG5 will determine maintenance bodies for Fortran revision standards, auxiliary standards, and technical reports. In general, the body that develops a standard will be responsible for its maintenance. WG5 will conduct a letter ballot on items that the maintenance body identifies as ready for further processing. From the items thus approved, WG5 will extract material appropriate for a technical corrigendum and forward the resulting draft to SC22 for further processing. This procedure will be repeated annually, except for those years in which a standard revision including the approved items is forwarded to SC22. 4.5 Coordination between WG5 and development bodies Meeting schedules will be coordinated to make the best advantage of members' resources as far as time and travel expenses are concerned and to accomplish the goals established by the schedule. There should be as much overlap as possible in the membership of WG5 and development bodies, especially with the primary development body. This provides informal communication and continuity. Formal written reports and resolutions will be used to clarify communications and maintain a record of communications. ____________________ end of SC22 N2533 ________________________________