From rinehuls@access.digex.net Tue Sep 1 02:01:13 1998 Received: from access1.digex.net (qlYBsVTekvXHY@access1.digex.net [205.197.245.192]) by dkuug.dk (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id CAA12510; Tue, 1 Sep 1998 02:01:08 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from rinehuls@access.digex.net) Received: from localhost (rinehuls@localhost) by access1.digex.net (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id SAA15623; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 18:12:15 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 18:12:14 -0400 (EDT) From: "william c. rinehuls" To: sc22docs@dkuug.dk cc: keld simonsen Subject: SC22 N2804 - USA National Body Activity Report for Plenary 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 N2804 TITLE: United States of America National Body Activity Report for the August 1998 SC22 Plenary DATE ASSIGNED: 1998-08-24 SOURCE: Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 BACKWARD POINTER: N/A DOCUMENT TYPE: National Body Activity Report PROJECT NUMBER: N/A STATUS: Discussion of this document will be an agenda item 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: rinehuls@access.digex.net ____________ end of title page; beginning of report ___________________ To: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 From: USA Subject: USA JTC1/SC22 National Activity Report for 1998 This document is the USA's JTC1/SC22 National Activity Report to the 1998 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". 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] Updated for 1998 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. COBOL [JTC1/SC22/WG4, J4] Updated for 1998 Technical committee J4 is responsible for the development of the US and international standards for COBOL (ANSI X3.23-1985, ISO 1989), the development of related amendments and technical corrigenda, and the processing of related defect reports. J4 continues development of a revision to ANSI X3.23-1985, ISO/IEC 1989:1985, which completed the second U.S. public review and the ISO/IEC combined CD registration and CD ballot in January 1997. Responses to comments were developed and J4 has nearly completed technical changes in response to accepted comments. A draft has recently been distributed to WG4 and J4 for a quality review. Features included in the COBOL revision are cultural adaptability, object orientation, enhanced inter-operability with other programming languages, new data types (bit, floating point, native binary, pointers), strong typing, enhanced portability of arithmetic, support for multiple-octet coded character sets, a screen handling facility, data validation support, conditional compilation, exception handling, storage allocation support, and file sharing with record locking. Following the quality draft and any subsequent rework, the draft will be submitted to WG4 for forwarding to SC22 for Final CD ballot. 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). Ada [JTC1/SC22/WG9, SC22/WG9 TAG] Updated for 1998 On-Going Activities Supported the recommendation that the contents of 11430 and 11729 are substantively subsumed by the subsequent approval of the 1995 revision of 8652. WG9 has requested that these standards be withdrawn at the conclusion of their five-year review period. Agreed with the determination that the revision of 12227 is currently unnecessary; this decision will be reconsidered periodically. Supported the recommendation that the contents of 11735 are substantively subsumed by the 1995 revision of 8652. This Technical Report will be withdrawn when usage of the 1987 version of the Ada language has diminished; this may be a very long time (25 years). Approved the submission of IS 13813 - Generic packages of real and complex type declarations and basic operations for Ada (including vector and matrix types) to ISO Central Secretariat for publication. Approved the submission of IS 13814 Generic package of complex elementary functions for Ada to ISO Central Secretariat for publication. Provided approval and comments to the FCD 15291 Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS) ballot. Provided approval and comments to the WD 15942 Guidance for the use of the Ada Programming Language in High Integrity Systems. 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] Updated for 1998 J11 continued work on revising the ISO/IEC 9899:1990 standard, making major technical contributions as well as supplying the project editor. CD1 was produced in December '97. All public comments from this were addressed at the June '98 meeting. CD2 (FCD) is scheduled to begin balloting in September '98. All known Defect Reports have been closed out. POSIX [JTC1/SC22/WG15, P1003] Updated for 1998 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 9945-11990] Re-affirmed, 10/95 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, forming balloting group Shell and Utilities Group 1003.2 (JTC1 22.21.02.01) - POSIX Shell and Utilities status: approved 9/92 [ISO/IEC 9945-21993] reaffirmation initiated 9/98 1003.2a (JTC1 22.21.02.02) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 for User Portability Extensions, status: approved 9/92 reaffirmation initiated 9/98 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: in ballot 1003.5d Ada Binding for 1003.1g, status: project withdrawn 1003.5f Ada Binding for 1003.21, status: under development 1003.5g Ada Binding to Realtime Interface status: under development 1003.9 Fortran 77 binding to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990, status: approved 6/92, reaffirmed 12/97 1003.24 Ada Binding for X Windows, based on OSF Motif 2.0 and IEEE Std 1295. status: under development 1003.26 C-Language Binding to 1003.21 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 project withdrawn 1003.2c (JTC1 22.43) - Amendment to IEEE Std 1003.2-1993 for Security [formerly 1003.6.2], status: in ballot project withdrawn 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] project withdrawn 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 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: approved 3/98 1003.13a Realtime Application Environment Profile status: under development 1003.14 Multi-Processing Application Environment Profile for POSIX, status: project withdrawn 1003.18 POSIX Interactive Systems Application Environment Profile status: project withdrawn 1003.23 Guide for Developing User Open System Environment (OSE) Profiles status: in ballot 1003.25 Guide to Developing National Locales and 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] Updated for 1998 J17 is working with WG17 and focusing on the preparation, publication, and balloting of the Final CD for Part 2. Extra time was been allowed in the timetable to permit resolution of some remaining issues concerning metapredicates. The FCD is currenlty under ballot with a closing date of 7 December 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. PL/I [J1] Updated for 1998 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, corresponding respectively to IS 6160 and 6522. J1 also maintains a technical report (X3/TR-8) on a working definition of the proposed extensions to PL/I for 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. Within the last few months, J1 has recommended to NCTIS that both X3.53 and X3.74 be reaffirmed on the ANSI five-year cycle, since the language is still in use and these documents provide a useful reference for users. C++ [JTC1/SC22/WG21, J16] Updated for 1998 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 technical work is complete. FDIS 14882 completed JTC1 balloting on June 23, 1998. Publication of the International Standard is expected any day. The US intends to adopt the international C++ standard as an American National Standard. Internationalization [JTC1/SC22/WG20, L2] Updated for 1998 L2's involvement as TAG to WG20 has resulted in more participation of the US in WG20, and in technical changes in draft standards to make them more language independent. Anticipated actions in the near future are the review of the new FCD 14651 - international string ordering and the draft for the CD 14652 - specification method for cultural conventions. Java Study Group [JTC1/SC22/JSG, J22] Updated for 1998 The US established J22 to serve as the US Tag to SC22's Java Study Group. J22 has not held a meeting since the last SC22 Plenary, but has been active through e-mail. Members of J22 participated actively in the US consideration of Sun's request for PAS submitter recognition. J22 also had a mail ballot to determine the US position on the Fast Track submission of DIS 16262 (ECMA-262 ECMAScript) and sent a delegation to the ballot resolution meeting. '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, is developing a US national standard for the programming language PL/B. The draft, X3.238, has been distributed for public review. It is anticipated that this national standards development effort could quickly lead to an international standard for PL/B that is identical to the US national standard. The PL/B programming language, which was originally developed in 1972, is currently the primary business programming language for over 250,000 workstations in over 40 countries, and is supported by at least nine independent compiler companies on a broad range of hardware platforms and operating systems. PL/B supports highly interactive business application programming in individual and shared network environments. PL/B has been developed to be easily learned in shorter time frames and by less experienced personnel than a majority of other standard programming languages. The PL/B programming language structure lends itself not only to easy code generation, but also to easily automated code analysis and re engineering which J15 feels are important considerations for future business programming environments. A number of trends have been identified and discussed by J15. These trends are expected to affect business software programming languages and standards development. Some of these trends have been partially addressed through enhancements already incorporated into the draft PL/B standard. Most of the trends listed here remain to be addressed in the future, subsequent to the present work of J15--developing the first standard for PL/B. a. Graphic, Context Sensitive Interface: Business software is becoming more graphic and bit-map oriented. Within a few years, most software users will expect programs to use windowing technology, graphical icons, pull-down (or pop-up) menus, and pointing devices (mouse, track ball, touch screen, etc.). b. Network of Computers Sharing Common Resources: The age of local area networks is here. Programming languages will need to provide better facilities to support common data access among disparate users attempting simultaneous access. The abilities to access and update data and perform coordinated transactions should be supported by all future business programming languages. c. Utilization of SQL: Business oriented programming languages and application software will be required to interface to various databases through SQL. Without SQL, although programs may be portable between hardware environments, it is doubtful that they will be compatible with other programs written in different languages, or accessing other databases. In the business world, compatibilit is far more important for a single data processing installation and user of business software than is portability (which tends to be more important for software providers). SQL is rapidly gaining popularity as a vehicle for providing both desired features. d. Parallel Processing: Tremendous opportunity exists within the near future to harness the power of multiple processor computers. Currently no standardized computer programming language provides substantial means to make use of parallel processing power within a single program. Programming techniques, and programming language constructs to support those techniques, need to be developed to address this issue. e. International Market: Business oriented programming languages need to support greatly expanded character sets, expanded keyboard interactivity, and greater control over key-in and echo-back of characters. Seven and eight bit coded character sets are inadequate for international markets. 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] Updated for 1998 Fask-track ISO balloting has been completed for three M[UMPS} Development Committee (MDC) standards, the first two on 17 March 1998 and the third on 2 April 1998 * X11.1, M[UMPS] language specification (revision of ISO 11756-1992) * X11.6, M[UMPS] Windowing Application Programmers' Interface (new standard - ISO 15852) * X11.2, Open M[UMPS] Interconnect (new standard - ISO 15851) The MDC is in the process of making the required edits to all three documents to conform to ISO formatting requirements and expects to have this completed by the 17 August 1998 deadline. After a recent consolidation in the vendor community, the MDC is conducting a review of the business case for continued development of ANSI and ISO standards. We are contacting vendors and users around the world for information on their interest in additional standards work. In the meanwhile, the MDC is preparing draft texts for new versions of the M Language, MWAPI, and OMI standards. Plans for circulation and balloting of these documents will depend on responses from implementors and users. 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. APL [JTC1/SC22/WG3] The US is no longer actively participating in the development of the APL standards. BASIC The US is no longer actively participating in the development of the BASIC standards. PCTE [JTC1/SC22/WG22] The US terminated its activities in the development of the PCTE standards. _____________________ end of SC22 N2804 _____________________________