From rinehuls@access.digex.net Wed Aug 6 18:10:35 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 SAA23733 for ; Wed, 6 Aug 1997 18:10:32 +0200 Received: from localhost (rinehuls@localhost) by access2.digex.net (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id MAA10239 for ; Wed, 6 Aug 1997 12:10:29 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 12:10:28 -0400 (EDT) From: "william c. rinehuls" To: sc22docs@dkuug.dk Subject: SC22 N2543 - WG19 Business Plan and Conveners Report - PLENARY AGENDA ITEM 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 N2543 August 1997 TITLE: WG19 Business Plan and WG19 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 and Business Plan will be considered under Agenda Item 8.11 at the August 1997 SC22 Plenary. CROSS REFERENCE: N/A DOCUMENT TYPE: Business Plan and 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 report ________________ BUSINESS PLAN AND CONVENER'S REPORT: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG19 (Formal Methods) PERIOD COVERED: SEPTEMBER 1996 -- AUGUST 1997 SUBMITTED BY: Derek Andrews (ISO/IEC JTC1 WG19 Convener) Department of Mathematics & Computer Science University of Leicester University Road Leicester Email: derek@mcs.le.ac.uk Tel : +44 116 252 3401 Management Summary __________________ 1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG22 Statement of Scope WG22 is responsible for formal methods and formal languages. It is currently responsible for the specification language VDM-SL, the specification language Z and the syntactic metalanguage. 1.2 General Statement Most of the work of WG19 is carried out by the two Rapporteur Groups: VDM and Z. However, some issues are covered jointly. The Working Group is now responsible for the syntactic matalanguage project which at present involves the maintenance of the Standard (ISO/IEC 14977). It should be noted that the BSI version of this Standard was used in conjunction with VDM-SL in the definition of Modula-2 in the appropriate ISO Standard, and was also used to describe the concrete syntax of VDM-SL. It should be noted that this Standard describes a standard metalanguage for describing the syntax of programming language, the language is based on BNF. At this time, there were no meetings of the full Working Group in 1997. Planned Meetings in 96--97: September 1998 (exact date to be fixed) The reports of the two Rapporteur Groups follow. VDM-SL Rapporteur Group _______________________ 1. Management Summary 1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG22 VDM-SL Statement of Scope This rapporteur group is responsible for the VDM-SL Standard and related activities. 1.2 Project Report 1.2.1 Completed Projects The group has completed work on part 1 of the VDM-SL Standard which was published in December 1996. 1.2.2 Projects Underway The rapporteur group will continue its work on this project by setting up a mechanism to consider corrections and how a technical corrigendum will be made available (if and as necessary). Work on Part II of the Standard continues, a review of the various approaches was completed and a work plan constructed (see below). 1.2.3 Cancelled Projects There are no cancelled projects. 1.2.4 Cooperation and Competition The WG19-VDM group involves collaborative work of six participating P-members: UK, Denmark, Holland, France, Japan and the USA. The Standardization work was also supported by the EU by various grants. There are no competative ativities. 2.0 Period Review 2.1 Market Requirements The increase in the need for safety-critical systems will imply increased interest in formal languages. In last year's report it was stated that the main task of the VDM-SL working group (apart from routine maintenance of the Standard) was the production of part 2 of the Standard which is concerned with the introduction of some sort of modularisation. In the previous report from this group, the possibility of adding an Object Oriented Structure to VDM-SL. The work to date by members of the VDM-SL working group has identified that a way forward is to adopt as part of this new Standard the work accomplished by a European group working in this area. 2.2 Achievements Documents describing the proposed extensions were distributed in October 1997. 2.3 Resources A proposal has been submitted to the European Commission for support of the next phase of the Standardisation work --- an answer is expected either by the beginning of September 1997. 3.0 Focus for Next Work Period The work plan for the project to produce Part II of the VDM-SL Standard consists of the following three major tasks: - task 1 : The OO structuring This is concerned with adding classes and related constructs to VDM-SL so that it can support the specification of Object Oriented systems. - task 2 : The parallel features The semantics of objects are such that in specifications, if an execution model is used to provide informal semantics, they require `concurrency'. Thus parallel features need to be considered for the model to be as general as possible. - task 3 : The Real time features An OO specification must have a interpretation that allows concurrency, thus a possible refinement is to preserve the parallelism inherent in an OO specification, this implies that real-time features should be added as part of this effort. There is a possible additional task 4: VDM refinement rules and their proof could be included if the progress on the other topics progresses quickly --- this was always part of the Standardisation effort. 3.1 Deliverables The deliverables time schedule: task code description completed task 1.1 OO structuring committee draft end 1997 task 1.2 Static semantics of OO structuring end 1998 task 2.1 Parallel language constructs cie draft mid 1998 task 2.2 Semantics in RTL end 1998 task 3.1 Real Time committee draft end 1998 task 3.2 Semantics in RTL mid 1999 This estimate is based on the assumption that the current documents resulting from the European group's work (Afrodite project) will be reused to large extent. We envisage that several intermediate versions of the documents will be necessary to come to the committee draft. >From the very start the documents will be written in the ISO standard format. There will be 3 major versions for each part --- these will be handled electronically were appropriate. All documents will be checked by the VDM++ toolbox (this tool supports Standard VDM-SL together with OO extensions) --- this will ensure consistency. 3.2 Strategies A mechanism for dealing with defect reports against the VDM-SL Standard will be put in place as and when necessary (non have occured at this time). For Part II of the Standard, build on existing work by the APHRODITE group where ever possible. 3.2.1 Risks Lack of EC funding could cause a delay in the above work schedule. 3.2.2 Opportunities 3.3 Work Program Priorities Tasks 1.1 and 1.2 of the work-plan 4 Other Items 4.1 Possible Action Requests at Forthcoming Plenary To continue work on Part II of the Standard 4.2 Project Editor Derek Andrews to continue as project editor. 4.3 Electronic Document Distribution Nearly all work is of this subgroup is carried out by Email, it is intended to continue this. It is planned that future documents will be available at a Web Site for both the working group, this rapporteur group (and the Z rapporteur group), linked to the appropriate ISO web pages. At present FTP of working documents are available, but only within the rapporteur group --- this will be extended with appropriate access control mechanisms. 4.4 Recent Meetings All work has been carried out by Email, meetings planned for next year to review work on Part II of the Standard. 4.5 Future Meetings (Electronic) meeting in October --- date to be fixed. Z Rapporteur Group __________________ 1. Management Summary 1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG22 Z Notation Statement of Scope This rapporteur group is responsible for the Z Notation Standard and related activities. 1.2 Project Report 1.2.1 Completed Projects The group has completed work on almost all the comments raised against the first CD. 1.2.2 Projects Underway The group continues to redraft the CD submitted in September 1995 in line with comments received. 1.2.3 Cancelled Projects There are no cancelled projects. 1.2.4 Cooperation and Competition The work of the group involves that participation of members from the UK, USA, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Canada, and Ireland. Members are drawn from industry, government, and universities. The standardization work has been assisted by grants from industrial and government agencies in the USA and Europe. There are no competitive activities. 2.0 Period Review 2.1 Market Requirements The increasing interest in safety-critical systems and in secure systems suggests a continuing interest in the use of the Z notation. Industrial users of the Z notation continue to exert pressure for a standard, and contribute their people's time to the work. 2.2 Achievements Theoretical papers addressing comments on the draft CD have been produced by members of the group, and agreed as the basis of the next draft. 2.3 Resources Further funding for the project editor is being sought from industrial and other sources. 3.0 Focus for Next Work Period The work plan for the project is to produce a revised version of the Committee Draft submitted in September 1995, and accepted subject to comments. The new draft will take account of the submitted comments. The group hopes that the second draft will be able to proceed to Draft International Standard status with a minimum of amendment. The breakdown is as follows: Task 1.1: To prepare draft revisions of the clauses of the CD, based on the theoretical work done by the group over the last two years. (Project editor and individual writers) Task 1.2: To review the draft clauses and comment on them. (Technical experts in the group) Task 2.1: To prepare proposals for changes to the drafts. (Technical experts in the group) Task 2.2: To review the proposals and agree which proposals are to be accepted. (Whole group) Task 2.3: To implement the changes. (Project editor and individual writers) 3.1 Deliverables A revised CD by 1 April 1998. 3.2 Strategies The project editor and a small team of writers to prepare draft clauses. The technical experts to review the drafts. The technical experts to prepare proposals on the basis of the drafts. The group to review and accept proposals. 3.2.1 Risks Lack of funding for the project editor could cause delays in the work schedule. 3.2.2 Opportunities 3.3 Work Program Priorities The tasks have been listed in priority order. 4 Other Items 4.1 Possible Action Requests at Forthcoming Plenary To continue work on the revision of the CD of September 1995. 4.2 Project Editor John Nicholls is to continue as project editor. 4.3 Electronic Document Distribution Some of the work of the group is carried out by e-mail. LaTeX is used to prepare and communicate drafts and technical papers. Working papers are stored as PostScript files on an FTP server, and members retrieve them from the server as they need them. There is a private ftp server for group memebers only. 4.4 Recent Meetings Since September 1996, meetings have been held in the UK as follows: November 5 1996 at IBM Hursley Park January 28 1997 at Logica Cambridge May 20 1997 at Praxis Critical Systems, Bath 4.5 Future Meetings Meetings are planned as follows: September 22 1997 at BSI headquarters, London November 25 1997 at a venue to be decided January 1998 on a date and at a venue to be decided March 1998 on a date and at a venue to be decided. _________________________ end of SC22 N2543 ________________________