From Miles.Ellis@etrc.ox.ac.uk Tue Jul 15 18:34:23 1997 Received: from oxmail4.ox.ac.uk (oxmail4.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.33]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id SAA18339 for ; Tue, 15 Jul 1997 18:34:22 +0200 Received: from ermine.ox.ac.uk by oxmail4 with SMTP (PP) with ESMTP; Tue, 15 Jul 1997 17:33:12 +0100 Received: from [163.1.85.1] (com1.etrc.ox.ac.uk [163.1.85.1]) by ermine.ox.ac.uk (1.1/8.8.3) with ESMTP id RAA06831 for ; Tue, 15 Jul 1997 17:33:10 +0100 (BST) X-Sender: mellis@ermine.ox.ac.uk Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 17:34:39 +0100 To: sc22wg5 From: Miles Ellis Subject: WG5 Business Plan and Convenor's report to SC22 (draft) I append a text copy of a draft of my report to the SC22 Plenary in August. This is in the new "business plan" format that all Convenors have been asked to use. There are some items that anticipate decisions that we may (or may not ;-) make in Vienna, but I shal refine it as a result of our discussions and resolutions. I am ciculating it now mainly for the interest of those who will not be in Vienna; I shall bring paper copies to Vienna with me. ------------- WG5 V1 WG5 Business Plan and Convener's Report to SC22 1997 Plenary PERIOD COVERED BY THIS REPORT: August 1996 - July 1997 SUBMITTED BY: Convener of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 Dr. Miles Ellis Director: Educational Technology Resources Centre University of Oxford 37 Wellington Square Oxford OX1 2JF Phone: +44 1865 270528 Fax: +44 1865 270527 Email: Miles.Ellis@etrc.ox.ac.uk 1 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY 1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG5 Statement of Scope The development and maintenance of ISO/IEC Standards related to the Fortran programming language. 1.2 Project Report Additional details concerning WG5's current projects is annexed as WG5 N1286= =2E 1.2.1 Completed Projects 22.02.01.01 Programming Language Fortran - Part 1: Base Language The DIS ballot for this Standard ended in February 1997. There were several minor comments accompanying YES votes, and a NO vote from France on the grounds that the French title (created by ITTF) was incorrect. This issue has been resolved and the final text was submitted to ITTF for publication in June 1997. 1.2.2 Projects Underway 22.02.01.02 Type 2 TR on Floating Point Exception Handling in Fortran The concurrent Registration and PDTR Approval ballots for this project ended in March 1997. Despite the unanimous approval an error was subsequently discovered which slightly delayed subsequent progress. The draft DTR was submitted to SC22 for its DTR ballot in July 1997. 22.02.01.03 Type 2 TR on Interoperability between Fortran and C This has proved more complex than anticipated. However a draft PDTR was submitted for concurrent Registration and Approval ballots in April 1997; the ballots will end on September 11, 1997. 22.02.01.04 Type 2 TR on Enhanced Data Type Facilities in Fortran The concurrent Registration and PDTR Approval ballots for this project ended in March 1997. There were a number of minor comments which have now been processed. The draft DTR was submitted to SC22 for its DTR ballot in July 1997. 22.02.02 Programming Language Fortran - Part 2: Varying length character strings The non-normative annexe of this Standard is being revised to take advantage of the facilities of Fortran 95. However, work on the revision has identified certain difficulties which are currently being resolved. It is hoped to have a draft CD ready for balloting later this year. 22.02.03 Programming Language Fortran - Part 3: Conditional Compilation A draft CD will be submitted for combined Registration and Approval ballots later this year. 1.2.3 Cancelled Projects None 1.2.4 Cooperation and Competition WG5 cooperates closely with the ANSI NCITS/J3 Fortran Technical Committee, to whom it has delegated the technical development of Fortran 2000 as well as the maintenance of Fortran 95 (IS 1539-1:1997). There is also close contact with the industry-driven High Performance Fortran Consortium, with many members of the HPF Consortium also being members of J3 and/or WG5. Many of those responsible for the development of commercial Fortran compilers are members of J3 and/or WG5. Other important liaisons are those with IFIP WG2.5 (Numerical Software) and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG20 (Internationalization). There are no competitive activities. 2 PERIOD REVIEW 2.1 Market Requirements =46ortran is still the language of choice for the majority of scientific and technological programming, although the damage caused by the long delay between Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 has still not been reversed. However there are now signs of growing use of Fortran 90, and the recent introduction of two commercial subsets designed for educational use (F from Imagine, Inc and Elf90 from Lahey Computing Systems, Inc) is generating increased interest in Fortran from the higher education sector. This growth in interest, however, means that it is important that the development of the language can react quickly to market requirements, while still ensuring that the safeguards of full international review are maintained. (Fortran is used by a community which expects that today's programs will still be running in 25 years' time, and any deletions from the language are only acceptable, therefore, after extensive review and consultation.) In order to react effectively to new requirements without causing unacceptable delay to the processing of the main Standard, WG5 decided in 1995 to process certain high priority new features which were too late to be included in the Fortran 95 revision as Type 2 Technical Reports, with a guarantee that the feature would be incorporated unaltered in the next revision of the base Standard unless experience in implementation or use showed that a modification was necessary. The intent of this procedure was to encourage implementors to add these features to their compilers without waiting for the next revision of the main language Standard. Two such TRs, covering floating point exception handling and enhanced data types are about to be submitted for their final DTR approval ballots, while a third, concerning interoperability between Fortran and C, is currently in the process of being balloted for PDTR approval. Another perceived market requirement is for a form of conditional compilation to simplify the transfer of programs between many platforms. This is being processed as an additional Part of the Fortran Standard, as it is not currently intended that it should be a requirement for all Standard-conforming compilers. It is expected that the draft CD will be submitted for its first approval ballot later this year. WG5 has developed a database of requirements for future versions of Fortran during the last five years since the publication of Fortran 90, and this formed the basis of a year-long analysis of the features which should be added to the base language in the next revision, informally known as =46ortran 2000. 2.2 Achievements The latest revision of the base Fortran Standard has been approved and is currently awaiting publication. At a joint meeting with ANSI NCITS/J3 in Las Vegas in February 1997, the proposed content of the next revision (Fortran 2000) was finalised. 2.3 Resources As elsewhere in the Standardization world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to persuade employers to provide the necessary funding for Standards activity. Nevertheless, this has been a good year for WG5 with 38 people from seven countries attending the joint meeting with J3 in Las Vegas in February, and 26 people from seven countries attending WG5's regular meeting in Vienna in July. In addition members from other countries, notably France and Russia, are active in email discussions although unable to attend meetings. 3 FOCUS FOR NEXT WORK PERIOD 3.1 Deliverables It is anticipated that the TRs on Floating point exception handling (PDTR 15580) and enhanced data types (PDTR 15581) will be approved by the end of 1997 or very shortly thereafter, while the TR on interoperability between =46ortran and C will, hopefully, be approved by the summer of 1998. It is expected that the revision of IS 1539-2 (Varying length character strings) and the new part 3 of the Standard (Conditional Compilation) will both proceed to Final CD stage during the next year. 3.2 Strategies WG5 operates under a strategic plan described in WG5 Standing Document 4, whose latest revision is annexed to this report as WG5 N1287. In particular, the revision of the base Standard, IS 1539-1, is delegated to ANSI NCITS/J3 operating as WG5's Primary Development Body, while the other projects for which WG5 is responsible are handled by other Development Bodies which liaise with the Primary development Body as required. 3.2.1 Risks As far as possible, WG5 tries to anticipate technical comments during international ballots by holding informal ballots of its members before any documents are submitted for ballot. Nevertheless, unexpected technical comments can always delay the planned schedule. 3.2.2 Opportunities WG5 has made extensive use of email for over a decade to speed up technical development. Since 1995 most documents have been distributed via an official file server in the UK, with two mirror sites in the USA. A WWW site is also used to provide static and non-technical information. This system is currently being revised in accordance with the latest JTC1 guidelines. In addition to speeding up the distribution of documents, the use of electronic distribution and communication systems also provides many other benefits, such as the ability to rapidly carry out informal ballots of the members for various reasons. 3.3 Work Program Priorities Publication of the two TRs on Floating point exception handling (PDTR 15580) and enhanced data types (PDTR 15581) is our top priority for 1997-98. Second priority is the publication of the third TR on interoperability between Fortran and C. Third priority is the progression of Part 3 of the Standard (Conditional Compilation to Final CD stage. 4 OTHER ITEMS 4.1 Possible Action Requested at Forthcoming SC22 Plenary [If necessary] 4.2 Electronic Document Distribution As noted above, WG5 plans to move to exclusive electronic distribution of all documents later in 1997, having been distributing in this form to almost all members since 1995. At the same time it is planned to link the WG5 web site to the various ftp servers and to introduce password control of certain classes of documents, as required by JTC1 policy. 4.3 Recent Meetings 1997/2/10-14 Las Vegas, USA This meeting was a joint meeting with ANSI NCITS/J3, and was primarily concerned with finalising the proposed content of the next revision of Fortran, informally known as =46ortran 2000. 1997/7/21-25 Vienna, Austria 4.4 Future Meetings 1998/6/8-12 Trollh=E4ttan, Sweden 4.5 Annexed Documents WG5 N1286 SC22 Project Information (WG5 Standing Document 3) WG5 N1287 Strategic Plan for Fortran Standardization (WG5 Standing Document 4) ------------------------------------------------------------ Dr Miles Ellis Director: Educational Technology Resources Centre University of Oxford, 37 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JF, ENGLAND Telephone: +44 1865 270528 Fax: +44 1865 270527 Email: Miles.Ellis@etrc.ox.ac.uk WWW: http://www.etrc.ox.ac.uk/Personal/Miles/Miles_Ellis.html