Subject: SC22 N2559 - USA National Activity Report - FOR PLENARY

From: "william c. rinehuls" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 17:06:50 -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
N2559

August 1997

TITLE:
United States of America National Activity Report for the August 1997 JTC
1/SC22 Plenary

SOURCE:
Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22

WORK ITEM:
N/A

STATUS:
This Report will be considered under Agenda Item 7.2 at the August 1997
SC22 Plenary

CROSS REFERENCE:
N/A

DOCUMENT TYPE:
United States of America National Activity Report

ACTION:
To SC22 Member Bodies 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 report _________________

	  USA JTC1/SC22 National Activity Report
   
 This document is the USA's JTC1/SC22 National Activity Report to the 
 1997 plenary meeting of SC22. This report consists of two parts.  The 
 first part discusses US activity in programming languages for which 
 JTC1/SC22 has parallel projects.  The title of first part is "COMMON 
 PROJECTS".  The second part of this report discusses US activity in 
 programming languages for which JTC1/SC22 has no parallel projects.  
 The title of the second part is "NEW PROJECTS".
 
 Early this year, the parent committee for many of the US's programming 
 language Technical Committees changed its name from X3 to the National 
 Committee for Information Technology Standards, or NCITS (pronounced 
 "insights").  Many of the technical committees formerly known as 
 X3J ... and now referred to as simply J ...  For example, the Pascal 
 committee used to be called X3J9; it is now J9.

 COMMON PROJECTS

 The programming language standards development projects listed in this 
 portion of the report are active within the USA and have corresponding 
 JTC1/SC22 activity.

 Pascal [J9]
 
 The responsibility for maintenance of the American National Standards 
 and ISO/IEC standards for the programming languages Pascal and 
 Extended Pascal rests with J9.  This includes the Technical Report on 
 Object-Oriented Extensions to Pascal [X3/TR-013:1994], the 
 international Pascal standard, ISO/IEC 7185:1990, and the Extended 
 Pascal standards X3.160-1989 and ISO/IEC 10206:1991.

 APL [JTC1/SC22/WG3]
 
 The US is no longer actively participating in the development of the 
 APL standards.  
 
 COBOL [JTC1/SC22/WG4, J4]
 
 Technical committee J4 is responsible for the development of the US 
 and international standards for COBOL.  The scope of work also 
 includes the responsibility to develop amendments and technical 
 corrigenda to the current COBOL standard (ANSI X3.23-1985, ISO 1989: 
 1985).
 
 J4 continued development of a revision to ANSI X3.23-1985, ISO/IEC 
 1989:1985, which includes Multi-Octet Character Set (MOCS) support.  
 Also included are exception handling; enhanced portability of 
 arithmetic; object orientation; features for data validation; enhanced 
 interlanguage calling; a screen handling facility; new data tpes for 
 floating-point native binary, and booleans; and strong typing.  
 
 Responses were developed for the comments on Working Draft 1.0.  
 
 Committee Draft 1.0 is being circulated for review.
 
 J4 continues to place emphasis on synchronization with SC22/WG4.

 Fortran [JTC1/SC22/WG5, J3]
 
 J3 continued as the group appointed by SC22/WG5 that will maintain the 
 Fortran standard--providing errata, interpretations, and amendments to 
 the standard.  To accomplish this, J3 has established the 006 document.
 J3 maintains this document in such a form that extractions can be made
 that satisfy the defect management requirements of both ANSI and ISO. 
 The process continues for forwarding these extractions to SC22/WG5, as 
 preparation for official adoption by ISO. 
  
 J3 continued its close cooperation with SC22/WG5.  SC22/WG5 will 
 continue to act as the requirements body.  J3 will continue to act as 
 the implementation body.  Both J3 and SC22/WG5 periodically review the 
 progress of the implementation. 
  
 J3 and SC22/WG5 having agreed that an evolutionary successor to 
 Fortran 90 emphasizing corrections, clarifications, and 
 interpretations, with minimal technical enhancements, be produced in 
 the 1995/96 time frame, produced "Fortran 95". The document is 
 currently in the final stages of approval. An evolutionary successor 
 involving relatively greater technical enhancements is envisioned for 
 the 2000/01 time frame. (Note: J3 delivered the 1995/96 revision draft 
 document to WG5 in May of 1995). The cutoff for receiving suggestions 
 for the 2000 standard has essentially already occurred. There was a 
 joint WG5 meeting to establish the feature list candidates for "F2K". 
 As always, J3 maintains a database of US requirements and continues to 
 solicit input from the US public. 
   
 The J3 committee is continuing its effort to improve the process of 
 standards production via such mechanisms as greater use of Email and 
 easier access to electronic copies of draft documents.  Also under 
 consideration are improvements to the document style. Paper 
 distributions have ceased. All committee papers are circulated 
 electronically. 
   
 With the increasing need for integration, the future will also see 
 continuing J3 cooperation with other (formal and informal) standards 
 committees.  Some examples are: parallelism (HPFF), operating systems 
 (POSIX IEEE P1003.9, SC22/WG15), cross-language issues (T2, SC22/WG11),
 and graphics (H3, SC24). 
 
 BASIC
 
 The US is no longer actively participating in the development of the 
 BASIC standards. 
 
 Ada [JTC1/SC22/WG9, SC22/WG9 TAG]
 
 Adoption of the 1995 version of the Ada language continues, with most 
 US vendors now offering products supporting the full revised language.
 
 The U. S. Department of Defense recently dropped its requirement to 
 use Ada 95 on all software, but support for use of the language 
 continues within specific military application areas including 
 embedded systems.  DoD financial support for the Ada standardization 
 is also planned to increase.
 
 US participation in the international standards effort continues. US 
 participants in WG9 include the convener, the webmaster, and project 
 editors for five of the eight projects currently assigned to WG9.
 
 The next meeting of WG9 will be hosted by the US in St. Louis on 
 November 14, 1997.
 
 Bindings [JTC1/SC22/WG11, T2]
 
 Technical committee T2 is responsible for US standards development 
 concerning data interchange and bindings.  A portion of that work 
 corresponds to JTC1/SC22 and the rest corresponds to JTC1/SC21 
 activities.  The work of T2 that is related to JTC1/SC22 covers 
 definitions of data types, procedure calls and arithmetic, independent 
 of any particular processing language.  Activities of T2 corresponding 
 to JTC1/SC21 include information transfer syntax formats and 
 description techniques, and a technique for interchange of conceptual 
 schema.

 Modula-2 [JTC1/SC22/WG13, P1151]
 
 The standards development activities for Modula-2 are being carried 
 out in project P1151 of the Microprocessor Standards Committee (MSC) 
 of the Computer Society (CS) of the Institute of Electrical and 
 Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

 C [JTC1/SC22/WG14, J11]
 
 J11 continued work on revising the ISO/IEC 9899:1990 standard, making 
 major technical contributions as well as supplying the project editor. 
 The CD registration process began in May and the CD ballot process is 
 expected to begin in October.  J11 also continued to assist SC22/WG14 
 with Defect Report processing.
 
 POSIX [JTC1/SC22/WG15, P1003]
 
 Standardization of POSIX is being pursued within the Portable 
 Applications and Systems Committee (PASC, formerly TCOS) of the 
 Computer Society (CS) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic 
 Engineers (IEEE).  
 
 For more information, see http://www.pasc.org/.
 
 System Services Group
 
 1003.1  POSIX System Application Programming Interfaces
 	status: approved 1990 [ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990]
 1003.1a Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for corrections and
 	supplementary services and interfaces, status: in ballot
 1003.1b (JTC1 22.21.01.02) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for
 	POSIX Real-Time Services [formerly 1003.4],status: approved 
 	9/93
 1003.1c Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for POSIX Threads [formerly
 	1003.4a], status: approved 6/95
 1003.1d (JTC1 22.40) - Second Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for
 	POSIX Real-Time Services [formerly 1003.4b], status: in ballot
 1003.1f (JTC1 22.21.01.03.01) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for
 	Transparent File Access [formerly 1003.8], status: project 
 	withdrawn
 1003.1h Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Fault Tolerance,
 	status: in ballot
 1003.1i Corrigenda to 1003.1b, status: approved 6/95
 1003.1j Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Advanced Real-Time 
 	Extensions, status: in ballot
 1003.1k Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Removable Media
 	status: project withdrawn
 1003.1l (this designation not used)
 1003.1m Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Checkpoint/Restart
 	status: under development
 1003.1n Corrigenda to 1003.1/1b/1c/1i
 	status: under development
 1003.1o (this designation not used)
 1003.1p Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Resource Limits
 	status: under development
 1003.1q Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Tracing
 	status: under development
 
 Shell and Utilities Group
 
 1003.2  (JTC1 22.21.02.01) - POSIX Shell and Utilities
 	status: approved 9/92 [ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993]
 1003.2a (JTC1 22.21.02.02) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 for
 	User Portability Extensions, status: approved 9/92
 1003.2b (JTC1 22.41) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992, status: in 
 	ballot
 1003.2d Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 for Batch Processing, 
 	status: approved 12/94
 1003.2e Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.2-1993 for Removable Media
 	status: project withdrawn
 
 Test Methods Group
 
 1003.3  Test Methods for POSIX, status: approved 3/91
 2003    (JTC1 22.37) - Revision of IEEE Std 1003.3-1990, Test Methods 
 	for POSIX [formerly 1003.3], status: in ballot [ISO/IEC 13210]
 2003.1  Test Methods for IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 [formerly 1003.3.1]
 	status: approved 12/92
 2003.1b Amendment to Test Methods for IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for 1003.1b
 	status: in ballot
 2003.2  Test Methods for IEEE Std 1003.2-1993 [formerly 1003.3.2]
 	status: approved 6/96
 2003.5  Test Methods for IEEE Std 1003.5-1992 (Ada)
 	status: project withdrawn
 
 Language Bindings Group
 
 1003.5  Ada binding to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990, status: approved 6/92
 1003.5a (JTC1 22.21.04.02) - Corrigenda to IEEE Std 1003.5-1992 (Ada
 	Binding to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990) status: project withdrawn
 1003.5b Amendment 1 to IEEE Std 1003.5-1992 (Ada Binding to IEEE Stds
 	1003.1b and 1003.1c) status: approved 6/96
 1003.5c Amendment 2 to IEEE Std 1003.5-1992 (Ada Binding to IEEE Std
 	1003.1g) status: under development
 1003.5d Ada Binding for 1003.1g, status: project withdrawn
 1003.5f  Ada Binding for 1003.21, status: under development
 1003.9  Fortran 77 binding to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990, status: approved 
 	6/92
 1003.24 Ada Binding for X Windows, based on OSF Motif 2.0 and IEEE Std
 	1295. status: under development
 
 Security Group
 
 1003.1e (JTC1 22.42) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Security
 	[formerly 1003.6.1], status: in ballot
 1003.2c (JTC1 22.43) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.2-1993 for Security
 	[formerly 1003.6.2], status: in ballot
 1003.22 Guide to Security in Distributed POSIX Environments,
 	status: in ballot
 
 System Administration Group
 
 1387.2  (JTC1 22.21.03.04) -Software Administration [formerly 1003.7.2]
 	status: approved 6/95 [ISO/IEC 15068-2]
 1387.3  (JTC1 22.21.03.05) - User and Group Administration [formerly
 	1003.7.3], status: approved 12/96 [ISO/IEC 15068-3]
 1387.4  (JTC1 22.21.03.03) - Print Administration [formerly 1003.7.1]
 	status: in ballot [ISO/IEC 15068-4]
 
 Distributed Services Group
 
 1003.1g (JTC1 22.21.01.03.03) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for
 	Protocol-Independent Transport Services [formerly 1003.12],
 	status: in ballot (approval expected 9/97)
 1003.21 Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 for Real-Time Communications,
 	status: in ballot
 
 Profiles Group
 
 1003.0  Guide to POSIX Open Systems Environments, status: approved 5/95
 	[ISO/IEC 14252 (Technical Report)]
 1003.10 Supercomputing Application Environment Profile for POSIX,
 	status: approved 6/95
 1003.11 Transaction Processing Application Environment Profile for
 	POSIX, status: project withdrawn
 1003.13 Real-Time Application Environment Profile standard for POSIX,
 	status: in ballot
 1003.14 Multi-Processing Application Environment Profile for POSIX,
 	status: in ballot
 1003.18 POSIX Interactive Systems Application Environment Profile
 	status: in ballot
 1003.23 Guide for Developing User Open System Environment (OSE) 
 	Profiles, status: under development

 Common Lisp [JTC1/SC22/WG16, J13]
 
 Technical committee J13 is responsible for the standardization of the 
 Common LISP programming language in the USA.  In December 1994, an 
 ANSI standard for the Common Lisp was formally approved as X3.226-1994.
 Common Lisp is the first ANSI standard for an object-oriented 
 programming language.
 
 J13 began with base document Common Lisp: The Language, by Guy L.  
 Steele Jr.  The X3.226-1994 standard places much greater emphasis on 
 portability and clarifies many aspects of compilation semantics.  The 
 standard also adds several major pieces of new functionality: an 
 object-oriented programming system, a condition handling system, an 
 improved iteration facility, and better support for large character 
 sets.   Presentation of information in the standard is also 
 substantively different than in the base document.  Specifically, the 
 standard separates concept information from dictionary information, 
 separates normative material from examples, introduces several new 
 notations for more compact and/or precise presentation of certain 
 kinds of information, and includes an extensive glossary of terms.
 
 Prolog [JTC1/SC22/WG17, J17]
 
 J17 is working with WG17 and focusing on the preparation, publication, 
 and balloting of the Final CD for Part 2.  Extra time has been allowed
 in the timetable to permit resolution of some remaining issues 
 concerning metapredicates. It is hoped that a DIS will be published 
 by the third quarter of 1998.

 Formal Specification Languages [JTC1/SC22/WG19, J21]
 
 J21 has JTC 1 TAG responsibilities for the SC22 projects on Formal
 Specification Languages (FSLs). These projects currently are JTC
 1.22.29, Vienna Definition Method Specification Language (VDM-SL) and
 JTC 1.22.45, Z Specification Language (Z).
 
 J21 interprets the scope of work as being implemented by attention to
 (1) VDM-SL standardization, (2) Z standardization, and (3) responding
 to requests of other technical committees and other standards
 development organizations for technical assistance and collaboration
 with regard the use of the assigned FSLs in the development of
 standards, such assistance and collaboration being carried out as
 liaison activities with the committees involved. 

 During this reporting period there has been no significant activity on
 VDM-SL, however, J21 has maintained a very active involvement in the
 work of WG19 (Z Rapporteur Group).  Two members of J2 (D. R. Johnson 
 and M. W. Saaltink) are also members of WG19 and have participated by 
 providing comments on technical issues being considered by WG19 and by 
 reviewing and commenting on committee documents.  In addition, both 
 are among the primary writers of the standard, responsible between 
 them for revising four chapters of the current CD.
 
 At the request of the US TAG, NCITS T3, members of J21 have provided 
 ballot comments on the SC21/WG7 project ISO/IEC 10746-4/pDAM-1 (RM-ODP,
 both 4.2 and 4.3), were US delegates to the 1996 Plenary Meeting of 
 SC21, and continue to participate in editing meetings for these 
 documents.  In liaison with NCITS H7, members of J21 have contributed 
 to their work on the RM-ODP Enterprise Viewpoint and have reviewed the 
 potential use of deontic logic in addition to model-based FSLs to make 
 precise formal statements of obligations, permissions and prohibitions.

 PCTE [JTC1/SC22/WG22]
 
 The US recently terminated its activities in the development of the 
 PCTE standards.

 PL/I [J1]
 
 Technical committee J1 is responsible for maintaining the two 
 standards for the PL/I programming language. Those standards are 
 X3.53-1976, PL/I, and X3.74-1987, PL/I General Purpose Subset.  
 J1 also maintains a technical report (X3/TR-8) on a working 
 definition of the proposed extensions PL/1 real time applications.
 
 PL/I standards activity in the USA has been largely dormant since 
 the completion of ANSI X3.74-1987 (corresponding to DP 6522) in mid 
 1987 and the ISO reaffirmation of ANSI X3.53-1976 (corresponding to 
 ISO 6160) in mid-1988.  As a result the technical committee has been 
 put into maintenance status.  There have been no requests for 
 clarification or other committee responsibilities other than 
 reporting and liaison activities.
 
 C++ [JTC1/SC22/WG21, J16]
 
 Technical committee J16 is responsible for the US activities concerning
 the standardization of the C++ programming language.  Since the last 
 JTC1/SC22 plenary, the project for the development of the standard has
 proceeded together with JTC1/SC22/WG21.
 
 The US intends to adopt the international C++ standard as an American 
 National Standard.  As a consequence, the US process held a public 
 review of the C++ CD, which was produced November 1996. J16 addressed 
 the comments from this public review at its meeting in Nashua NH in 
 March 1997, and recommended a US vote of "Approval, with comments".
 
 J16 has completed its response to the first US Public Comment process 
 on the previous CD that was balloted mid-1995.

 Internationalization [JTC1/SC22/WG20, L2]
 
 L2 has recently assumed the US TAG responsibilities for WG20, 
 Internationalization.  L2 reviewed the DTR ballot for the revision of 
 TR 10176, Guidelines for the preparation of programming language 
 standards.  L2 recommended a NO vote and has provided a comprehensive 
 set of comments.  The next actions are expected to be:
 
 Review of a registration and CD ballot for IS 14652 - Specification 
 of Cultural Conventions (in July/August)
 
 Review of a FCD ballot for IS 14651 - International string ordering 
 (December)
 
 Review of a registration and CD ballot for IS 15435 - 
 Internationalization APIs (early 1998)
 
 It is hoped that the US will also send people to the WG20 meeting 
 again. 

 Java Study Group [JTC1/SC22/JSG, J22]
 
 The  US recently established J22 to serve as the US TAG to SC22's 
 Java Study Group.  J22 has held one meeting, to prepare for the 
 London meeting of the JSG.

 'NEW' PROJECTS
 
 The US recognizes that several of its national programming language 
 standards activities do not correspond to projects in JTC1/SC22.  
 The US is pleased to offer JTC1/SC22 information to assist its 
 membership in determining whether to develop worldwide standards for 
 those languages.
 
 The programming language standards development projects listed in 
 this portion of the report are active within the US but do not have 
 corresponding JTC1/SC22 activity.
 
 Forth [J14/P1141]
 
 J14 (operating jointly with IEEE P1141) finished developing a 
 standard for the Forth Programming Language.  It received final 
 approval March 24, 1994, with the designation X3.215: 1994.  The 
 effort has been underway since August 1987.  This standard was 
 recently approved, via the fast track process, as an International 
 Standard.
 
 PL/B [J15] (formerly DATABUS)
 
 Technical committee J15, formed in April 1988, has developed a US 
 national standard, X3.238 for the programming language PL/B.  
 
 REXX [J18]
 
 The first standard for the Rexx programming language is published as 
 X3.274-1996
 
 The project for an Extended Rexx version is approved and under way.
 
 MUMPS [MDC]

 Since acceptance of the 1990 US M[UMPS] standard as an ISO standard 
 (ISO/IEC 11756, M[UMPS]), significant additional work has been 
 completed by the M[UMPS] Development Committee (MDC).  A new suite 
 of standards completed the canvass approval process in the course of 
 1995.  The M[UMPS] Development Committee will recommend fast-track 
 ISO submission for: 
 
    X11.1, language specification (revision of ISO 11756-1992)
    X11.2, Open M[UMPS] Interconnect (new standard)
    X11.6, M[UMPS] Windowing Application Programmers' Interface 
 	(new standard)
 
 The ANSI standards include a new version of the M[UMPS] language 
 standard (X11.1), the Open M[UMPS] Interconnect (X11.2), and the M 
 Windowing Application Programmer Interface (X11.6).  There are also
 bindings to SQL, GKS, and control codes for 7 bit and 8 bit sets 
 (X3.64).  The SQL and X3.64 bindings have been incorporated into 
 X11.1.  The GKS binding is a separate document (X11.3).
 
 The new version of the language standard includes character set 
 description protocols that allow the M[UMPS] language to provide 
 international character set support in a standard fashion.  It also 
 includes transaction processing, exception handling, expanded device 
 handling, and a protocol for calling programs or functions outside 
 the M[UMPS] language. 
 
 The Open M[UMPS] Interconnect (OMI) facilitates inter-vendor data 
 sharing.
 
 The M Windowing API (MWAPI) provides windowing functionality 
 independent of the underlying windowing environment.  The API 
 separates windowing gadget description from processing, which 
 significantly reduces the set of instructions required. 
 
 While the work frozen in 1994 moves through the approval process, 
 the MDC has been working on additional functionality.  To date, 
 sixty-four proposals, ranging from entire libraries of mathematics 
 routines to error corrections and new operators has been approved.  
 Current proposals include one proposal sponsored by our European 
 colleagues that would add object oriented features and remove many 
 current syntactic elements, producing a totally new version of the 
 language. 

 Smalltalk (J20)
 
 The US is continuing a project to develop a standard for the Smalltalk
 programming language.  Current project plans call for producing a US 
 standard.
 
_______________________ end of SC22 N2559 ___________________________