Subject: Document SC22 N2237

From: "william c. rinehuls" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 16:46:34 -0400 (EDT)

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces
Secretariat:  U.S.A.  (ANSI)

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
N2237

August 1996

TITLE:              Response to SC22 Comments on ISO/IEC Directives,
                    Part 3, Third Edition

SOURCE:             Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22

WORK ITEM:          N/A

STATUS:             N/A

CROSS REFERENCE:    N/A

DOCUMENT TYPE:      N/A

ACTION:             To SC22 Member Bodies, WG Conveners and HODs 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]

____________________________________________________________________________

From: Bob Follett, Chairman, JTC 1/SC22

Subject: Response to SC22 Comments on ISO/IEC DIrectives, Part 3, Third
         Edition

About three months ago, I circulated a summary of changes to Part 3 of the
ISO/IEC Directives which I had just become aware of (Document SC22
N2154). We had a very short time frame for response.  I compiled comments
from several of you into an informal response which was endorsed by the
JTC1 Secretariat and sent to Geneva.

The joint ISO/IEC working group on maintenance of the Directives met on
28-29 May to discuss the comments and produced a disposition of comments
that is 102 pages long.  Following is the disposition of the SC22
submitted comments:

SC22 COMMENT:

1.  The fourth listed change states: "notes integrated in the text and
footnotes to the text are not numbered consecutively throughout the text
but are numbered per numbered subdivision of text and per page
respectively."  This change is likely to cause significant problems for
several reasons: 

    a)  Many word processing programs do not support numbering footnotes
per page.

    b)  Without word processing support, footnotes would have to be
numbered manually.  From a practical viewpoint, this is impossible since
the pages are not determined until the end, and then will change when
modifications are made. 

    c)  Pages will not be the same after translation to another
language.  Numbering by page appears to have similar problems to line
numbering of text and should be rejected for the same reasons. 

    d)  As we progress to more on-line versions of documents, standards
may be viewed on computers where printed page numbers are irrelevant.  If
printed, the varying paper sizes and local printing conventions will
likely cause differences in page appearances even for standards written in
the same language. 

ISO/IEC RESPONSE:

Agreed.

SC22 COMMENT:

2.  The second listed change states: "it is no longer permissible to
subdivide a standard into sections or chapters."  Several of our standards
currently have "sections"  and we are unclear as to how this constraint
will be interpreted with regard to these standards.  It is also unclear
what benefit is being derived from this change. 

ISO/IEC RESPONSE:

The proposed change only removes duplication as the terms "clause" and
"section" lead to the same result in terms of numerical structure.  The
proposed change leads to a simpler and more rational structure for
standards, the term "clause" replacing the former "section".

It is appreciated that this change will need clear explanation and good
preparation before starting to write a standard.  If there is real
necessity, there is the possibility of breaking down standards into parts.

It is also simpler for electronic processing and automatic numbering of
texts.

SC22 COMMENT:

3.  The third listed change states: "annexes are presented in the order in
which they are cited in the text ... "  This appears to be an unnecessary
constraint that will require reorganization of some documents for no
apparent benefit.

ISO/IEC RESPONSE:

Not accepted.

END OF COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

Regards,
Bob

______________________end of document SC22 N2237  ________________________