Subject: SC22 N2785 - WG13 Business Plan and Conveners Report for Plenary

From: "william c. rinehuls" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 16:13:59 -0400 (EDT)

NOTE:  My apologies.  I sent the original version to the wrong web
address.  This is a retransmittal.

____________________ 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
N2785

TITLE:
WG13 Business Plan and WG13 Convener's Report for the August 1998 JTC 1/
SC22 Plenary

DATE ASSIGNED:
1998-08-05

SOURCE:
Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22

BACKWARD POINTER:
N/A

STATUS:
This document will be on the agenda for the August 1998 JTC 1/SC22 Plenary

ACTION IDENTIFIER:
FYI

DUE DATE:
N/A

DISTRIBUTION:
Text

CROSS REFERENCE:
N/A

DISTRIBUTION FORM:
Def

Address reply to:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 Secretariat
William C. Rinehuls
8457 Rushing Creek Court
Springfield, VA 22153 USA
Telephone:  +1 (703) 912-9680
Fax:  +1 (703) 912-2973
email:  [email-masked]

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                Business Plan and Convener's Report
                 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG13 (Modula-2)

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: [email-masked]

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.

JTC1.22.18.02 -- DIS 10514-3 Objected Oriented Modula-2

  DIS 10514-3 was submitted to ITTF for publication in March 1998,
  but has apparently not been published to date.

JTC1.22.18.04 -- DIS 10514-2 Generics in Modula-2

  DIS 10514-2 was submitted to ITTF for publication in March 1998,
  but has apparently not been published to date.

1.2.2 PROJECTS UNDERWAY

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, as there have been
  severe delays due to lack of participation in the project.
  WG13 would however like to investigate the matter further,
  but feels unable to set a clear deadline for proceeding to
  PDTR submission stage.  It is however hoped that the project
  will have reached sufficient maturity by the end of 1998.

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

JTC1.22.05 -- Support for Commercial Programming in Modula-2

JTC1.22.06 -- Further support for Concurrent Programming in Modula-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 results of 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 publication in March 1998.

The WG13 Web site can be found at http://sc22wg13.twi.tudelft.nl/

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, work on the Technical Report on
Interfacing Modula-2 to C will have to be progressed as quickly as
possible.

3.1 DELIVERABLES

Project JTC1.22.15436 is expected to produce a next working draft
later this year, 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

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

Project JTC1.22.15436 is the only open project currently assigned to
the working group.

4. OTHER ITEMS

This section lists other items that are not part of the "Business
Plan" but are appropriate for the Convener's Report.

4.1 PROJECT EDITORS

The following individuals serve as 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)

4.2 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.

4.3 RECENT MEETINGS

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

Work on project JTC1.22.15436 will be progressed using e-mail.  WG13
feels no need to schedule a meeting for this purpose alone.

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