Prepared 2 December 1998 by Clyde Roby, Secretary
These minutes have not yet been approved.
The announcement and draft agenda for this meeting were originally circulated as N349. The detailed agenda for this meeting was originally circulated as N352.
The 35th meeting of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 was hosted by the US National Body, in conjunction with the SIGAda'98 conference. Conference and venue information can be obtained at the following web site:
http://www.acm.org/sigada/conf/sa98/
The WG9 meeting was conducted in two parts:
The meeting began at 1:00 p.m.
Clyde Roby agreed to serve as Secretary for the meeting.
Ben Brosgol of SIGAda, welcomed WG9 to the Washington DC area. Jim thanked SIGAda for providing our room thus making it much easier to conduct our meeting.
The draft minutes of meeting #34 appear in document N344 and the resolutions in document N343.
Resolution 35-A was unanimously approved.
[Agenda]
National Body Delegations (only HOD is listed):
WG9 Officers (if not already listed):
Others in attendance:
Those sending regrets include:
From Steve Michell: Canada continues to be involved in the HRG and continues to support ASIS.
From Jean-Pierre Rosen, 5 November 1998: The AFNOR Ada group met on November 5th. The main concern was about the survival of the group, still under financial threat.
On the technical side, the group approved the ASIS FDIS.
On the issue of the conformance document, the feeling of the group was that the document was intended only for a very technical audience, and therefore that accuracy should prevail over readability. The group is therefore in favor of keeping the extended list of definitions, and putting all defined words in bold.
From Erhard Ploedereder, 28 October 1998: There are no new developments to report. Work in the areas reported at the last WG9 meeting continues.
After this fall, Japan's Special Interest Group on Ada will disappear due to lack of interest.
Ada business in Sweden is pretty stable.
From John Barnes, 28 October 1998: The BSI Ada subgroup met recently to discuss progress on various Ada matters. It was pleased to note that both ASIS and the HRG report are progressing well and that continuity of validation is under control. Concern was expressed regarding the electronic availability of ASIS.
During the meeting, Convenor indicated that the Ada package specifications for ASIS will be available electronically; this was derived from the general principle that the availability of package specifications is different from the availability of the standard.
A four day conference was held by Ada UK in October; it was perhaps rather more technical than previous such conferences and was well received by the attendees. Of particular note is the interest in the Ravenscar profile which was hailed as a major breakthrough in making Ada tasking acceptable to safety- critical systems.
[Agenda]
Clyde Roby continues his fine work in maintaining WG9's web page at http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC22/WG9/
Convenor was pleased to note that SIGAda Ada Letters has published several recent articles on the work of WG9:
Our Convenor, Jim Moore, represented WG9 at the Plenary Meeting of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August 1998, in Snekkersten, Denmark. His report of the plenary is N351.
ISO/IEC JTC1 has recently revised their Part 1 directives describing their procedures. A copy of the new directives are available from the "Current Topics" page of the WG9 web site.
Our parent organizations, SC22 and JTC1, have endorsed our request to ISO that any Technical Corrigenda (CORR) to the Ada standard may be published openly on the Web and will be openly available. (Every Technical Corrigenda has been published electronically.) The chairman of SC22 has advised our Convenor that we should now proceed with this work.
Congratulations to Don Sando, Jon Squires, Ken Dritz and the members of the Numerics Rapporteur Group on the recent publication of ISO/IEC 13813 and 13814. Publication was completed in July.
In addition, SC22 has approved WG9's recommendation to withdraw two obsolescent numerics standards (11430 and 11729) during 1999.
The Final Draft International Standard for ASIS has been submitted to JTC1 for ballot. It is possible that an ASIS standard could be published before the end of 1999. Our aggressive strategies for progressing this work have succeeded in accelerating completion of this standard by perhaps a full year.
The New Work Item on this subject, requested by WG9 in behalf of the Annex H Rapporteur Group (HRG), was approved by JTC1. The HRG prepared an initial draft and circulated it to WG9. Following comments, a revised draft was prepared and forwarded to SC22 for pDTR registration. Registration was performed at the August 1998 plenary meeting of SC22. The HRG will now incorporate remaining comments and prepare a draft for pDTR ballot by SC22. SC22 also approved the appointment of Brian Wichmann as project editor for this document.
Our strategy of pursuing plenary registration of this work was successful in accelerating the progress of this work by perhaps four months.
Brian has resigned as Chair of the HRG but will continue as Project Editor. On the advice of the UK delegation, Convenor appointed Alan Burns as chair of the HRG.
Because DoD is dropping its support for validation testing, it is important to reconstitute the "legal" authority for validation testing. There seems to be a consensus that validation testing should continue as before, but under the auspices of ISO/IEC JTC1 rather than the DoD. WG9 decided to submit a new work item proposal to JTC1 for the development of a standard on the subject of Ada Conformity Assessment. The New Work Item proposal was endorsed by SC22, the parent body of WG9, at its plenary meeting and forwarded to JTC1 for routine approval. Approval is expected by mid-January 1999. In the mean time, a preliminary Working Draft of the standard was prepared and circulated for information. This Working Draft has now been turned over to the Ada Rapporteur Group, the appropriate subcommittee of WG9, for further development. The ARG plans to complete the draft for balloting as a Final Committee Draft (FCD) immediately upon JTC1 approval of the work item. Using normal scheduling assumptions, this would result in a Draft International Standard by June 1999.
Our strategies of (1) pursuing plenary endorsement of the New Work Item (NWI), (2) preparing a Working Draft during a preliminary NWI period, and (3) obtaining authorization for combined CD registration/CD ballot/FCD ballot have accelerated this work by perhaps two years.
Aside from the US, no National Body has expressed any interest in participating in an Interfaces Rapporteur Group to standardize de facto Ada bindings. Accordingly, I will discharge the temporary Rapporteur Group. Our thanks go to David Emery for chairing the temporary Rapporteur Group.
[Agenda]
From convener: The schedule for meeting #36 was already adopted during the Uppsala meeting of WG9. The schedule for meetings #37 and #38 were proposed for the first time:
Resolution 35-B was passed unanimously.
[Agenda]
From Convener: This is the "To Do" list for WG9. Some are informal action items assigned to various participants. Some are formal resolutions which are not yet implemented. Some are suspense items awaiting action by other groups.
Status: OPEN. A request for relief from ISO copyright policy has been made, endorsed by SC22, endorsed by JTC1, and forwarded to ISO Central Secretariat for disposition. Following the 1998 JTC1 plenary meeting, the chair of SC22 is so confident of successful resolution of this issue that he has directed WG9 to begin preparing the CORR for online availability in accordance with SC22 N1236. Reassigned to Chair of ARG, 21 October 1998. From Erhard Ploedereder, 21 October 1998. The ARG intends to commence the editorial work in 1999. A schedule for completion will be proposed to WG9 at the first meeting in 1999.
Status: CLOSED. Clyde Roby did this.
Status: CLOSED. As of 2 November 1998, the email address still works.
Status: OPEN. ISO/IEC has still not placed an electronic version on their web site.
Status: CLOSED. Both standards were published in July.
Status: Administratively CLOSED. The Action Item is redundant with the resolution itself.
Status: CLOSED. No interest has been expressed by any national body.
The following guidance is provided to the Ada Rapporteur Group in dealing with Ada Issues: it should be possible to write portable bindings to C programs. The Ada Rapporteur Group is requested to propose an appropriate mechanism.
Status: CLOSED. From Erhard Ploedereder, 21 October 1998. The ARG will implement this resolution in all its findings. Since the appropriate mechanisms will vary on a case-by-case basis, the ARG cannot propose one single mechanism. For the issue that precipitated this resolution, the ARG has found a solution that both preserves compatibility to the current Ada standard and satisfies the user needs. A language-defined pragma will be added to allow records to be passed by copy, as required for structs in the C standard. The respective AI will be presented to WG9 for approval at the first meeting in 1999. An advance copy for review by WG9 may be available in time for the November 1998 meeting.
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following standards be withdrawn when they reach the end of their five-year life. Both standards are relevant to the 1987 version of the Ada language standard rather than the current version.
Status: OPEN. This resolution has been reported to SC22 and endorsed at their plenary meeting in August 1998. As of 21 October 1998, the standards remain listed on the ISO web site: http://www.iso.ch.
The disposition of comments on the ASIS Committee Draft ballot is approved by WG9 and the Project Editor of project 15291 is directed to forward Version 2.0.R of the draft to the SC22 secretariat for FDIS balloting.
Status: CLOSED. The actions have been completed.
WG9 considers it important that the ARG broaden its scope to consider language extensions suitable for inclusion in a future revision of the ISO standard, and requests that the ARG prepare an implementation of this policy for consideration by WG9.
Status: CLOSED. A proposal for implementation was provided by the ARG in its report for meeting #35.
WG9 endorses the nomination by the UK National Body of Brian Wichmann as Project Editor for 22.15942 and recommends his appointment by SC22.
Status: CLOSED. The appointment was approved by SC22 at their plenary meeting in August 1998.
Working Draft 3.4 of Project 22.15942 is approved as a WG9 Working Draft. The Project Editor of project 15942 is authorized to prepare Working Draft 3.5 for ballot by WG9.
Status: CLOSED. All actions have been completed.
WG9 authorizes the Convener, in his judgment, to request simultaneous processing of any or all of the following steps in the progress of project 15942: WD ballot, CD registration, CD ballot, FCD ballot.
Status: CLOSED. Convener requested that PDTR registration be performed at the August 1998 plenary meeting of SC22. This was approved. PDTR ballot can commence at any time.
[Agenda]
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.10.02 -- IS 11430:1994 Generic Package of Elementary
Functions for Ada, Ken Dritz, editor
Project 22.10.03 -- IS 11729:1994 Generic Package of Primitive
Functions for Ada, Ken Dritz, editor
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.
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August
1998, N351:
Resolution 98-Q: Standards for Periodic Review -- ISO/IEC
JTC 1/SC22 ... recommends that the following standards be withdrawn:
From Ken Dritz, 21 October 1998: No activity to report.
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.35 -- (Type 2) TR 11735:1996 EXTensions for real-time
Ada, Nasser Kettani, Editor
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.
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.31 -- IS 12227:1995 SQL/Ada Module Description
Language (SAMeDL), Andreas Koeller, editor
WG9 has determined that the revision of 12227 is currently unnecessary;
this decision will be reconsidered periodically.
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.10.04 -- DIS 13813 Generic packages of real and
complex type declarations and basic operations for Ada (including
vector and matrix types), Don Sando and Ken Dritz, editors
From Don Sando, 28 October 1998: The final proofing of DIS 13813 was completed by the project editor on June 10, 1998; no errata were discovered during the proofing process. IS 13813 was published by ISO on August 1, 1998, and can be ordered through the ISO online catalogue. A courtesy copy of IS 13813 has been received by the project editor.
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.10.05 -- DIS 13814 Generic package of complex elementary
functions for Ada, Jon Squire and Ken Dritz, editors
From Convener: Published in July 1998 concurrently with DIS 13813.
[Agenda]
From Convener: The New Work Item Proposal (NP) is contained in N347. The preliminary working draft attached to the proposal is N348. NBs who agreed to participate are Canada, Germany, Japan, UK, and the US. JTC1 approval is expected by mid-January 1999.
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August 1998, N351:
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August
1998, N351:
Conveners are routinely required to provide schedules for
all of the projects. Jim Moore provided the following schedule:
| Project | Name | CD (or PDTR) submitted for ballot | FDIS (or DTR) submitted for ballot | IS submitted for publication |
| NP | Conformity Assessment | 1/99* | 6/99* | 10/99* |
| * These dates have been revised from those appearing in the referenced document. The 1/99 date is immediately after JTC1 approves the NWI. The 6/99 date is after approval of the Disposition of Comments; the final text should be available in June 1999. | ||||
WG9 met earlier in the day as a "Committee of the Whole". There was agreement on the accreditation of laboratories and how to audit these labs. There were few technical comments. As a result of their meeting, the Committee of the Whole offered the motion described by Resolution 35-I, it was seconded by the US and was approved unanimously.
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.10.01 -- IS 8652:1995 Programming Languages: Ada, Erhard
Ploedereder and Bob Duff, editors
All AIs are being worked on and thus are not listed at this meeting.
Planning for the revision of 8652 is commencing.
Action Item 31-8 [Convener]: After resolution of the ISO copyright issue, determine a schedule for preparation of a technical corrigenda to the Ada standard, ISO/IEC 8652.
Status: OPEN. A request for relief from ISO copyright policy has been made, endorsed by SC22, endorsed by JTC1, and forwarded to ISO Central Secretariat for disposition. Following the 1998 JTC1 plenary meeting, the chair of SC22 is so confident of successful resolution of this issue that he has directed WG9 to begin preparing the CORR for online availability in accordance with SC22 N1236. Reassigned to Chair of ARG, 21 October 1998. From Erhard Ploedereder, 21 October 1998. The ARG intends to commence the editorial work in 1999. A schedule for completion will be proposed to WG-9 at the first meeting in 1999.
Convener's summary of status from meeting #32: The ARG reported that most of its remaining backlog of Ada Issues will be resolved before the next meeting. Their plan is to produce an initial working draft of a Technical Corrigendum by July 1998 and to complete its approval and publication by the year 2000. The document would be a collection of issues and responses like the Corrigendum to the C language prepared in another working group of SC22. [This plan is delayed pending resolution of the previous issue - jwm]
Resolution 32-4: The following guidance is provided to the Ada Rapporteur Group in dealing with Ada Issues: it should be possible to write portable bindings to C programs. The Ada Rapporteur Group is requested to propose an appropriate mechanism.
Status: CLOSED. From Erhard Ploedereder, 21 October 1998. The ARG will implement this resolution in all its findings. Since the appropriate mechanisms will vary on a case-by-case basis, the ARG cannot propose one single mechanism. For the issue that precipitated this resolution, the ARG has found a solution that both preserves compatibility to the current Ada standard and satisfies the user needs. A language-defined pragma will be added to allow records to be passed by copy, as required for structs in the C standard. The respective AI will be presented to WG9 for approval at the first meeting in 1999. Note that an advance copy was not available for review by WG9 for the November 1998 meeting.
Resolution 34-10c: WG9 considers it important that the ARG broaden its scope to consider language enhancements suitable for inclusion in a future revision of the ISO standard, and requests that the ARG prepare an implementation of this policy for consideration by WG9.
Status: CLOSED. A proposal for implementation is provided by the ARG in its report for meeting #35.
All the AIs can be found on:
http://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/AdaIC/standards/95com/ada-issues/
but will move in the future.
From Erhard Ploedereder, 28 October 1998: The ARG met in Paris/Montigny, France, on October 7-9. A sizeable list of AIs were discussed and resolved. Time did not permit the editorial review of the resulting final version of the AI to bring them for approval by WG9 at this time. Another major topic at the meeting was the collection of future enhancements to the language (see resolution 34-10c). An initial list of condidate enhancements was drawn up and two important topics selected for immediate discussion: mutually dependent type definitions in separate package specifications (needed for mapping existing OO class designs to Ada) and mapping of C unions to Ada types (needed for interfacing with C). A third topic was a thorough review of the main sections of the draft of the Ada Conformance Assessment standard. The resulting comments have since been reflected in an updated draft.
From Erhard Ploedereder, 26 October 1998:
[Response to Resolution 34-10c] The ARG has accepted this responsibility. It has collected an initial list of issues to be addressed by language extensions and will evaluate and expand this list, as comments from the user community will necessitate.
The ARG proposes the following policy:
a) whenever such an extension add functionality that is not related to an existing inconsistency or technical problem in the standard, the ARG will classify this as an !enhancement. At the time when WG9 decides on approving a draft Technical Corrigendum, WG9 should make the decision on whether or not to include the !enhancements as a mandatory feature of the standard.
b) The ARG recommends that WG9 decide soon whether the Technical Corrigendum should also contain a section on enhancements that are either non-binding or supportable only in non-standard modes of Ada language processors.
c) Whenever the best solution for an inconsistency or technical problem with the current standard involves adding a capability, e.g., a language defined pragma, the ARG will prefer such a solution over less favorable ones, even if the degree of change made to the language is considered higher. The ARG will issue these additions to the standard as !binding_interpretations, to be included in the Technical Corrigendum as a mandatory capability.
Notes on b): A non-binding inclusion would create superset dialects in standard mode, but would ensure commonality of the supersets, if present. The "non-standard mode" alternative avoids supersets in standard mode, but there is also no assurance of commonality.
The Convener conducted this discussion in three parts. In the first part, the convener entertained a procedural motion to accept the report of the ARG as a satisfactory response to Resolution 34-10c. The ARG made such a motion, it was seconded by the UK, and was unanimously approved.
The second part of the discussion took up the issue that the ARG raises in item (b) of their report. The ARG requests that WG9 provide guidance on the content of the planned Technical Corrigendum to the Ada standard. (Erhard noted that Randy Brukhart is now on board to work on the Technical Corrigendum -- SC22 recognized Randy Brukhart as the Technical Editor for such a document. Joyce Tokar is to take an action back to the ARA to clear the status of Bob Duff; she will send email to Erhard as a result.) Three alternatives are suggested by the ARG chair for consideration. WG9 may select one of these alternatives or may phrase a different one.
After considerable discussion, it was tabled.
The third part of the discussion was to adopt a policy for considering proposed language extensions.
After considerable discussion, it was tabled.
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.15291-- FCD 15291 Ada Semantic Interface Specification
(ASIS), Clyde Roby and Steve Blake, editors
Resolution 34-9: The disposition of comments on the ASIS Final Committee Draft ballot is approved by WG9 and the Project Editor of project 15291 is directed to forward Version 2.0.R of the draft to the SC22 secretariat for FDIS balloting.
From Chair of ASIS RG, Currie Colket, 31 July 1998: Disposition of Comments from the FCD ballot and the new Version 2.0.R for FDIS ballot are provided to the SC22 secretariat.
From Chair of ASIS RG, Currie Colket, 13 October 1998: FDIS Ballot by JTC1 is scheduled to close on 8 December 1998.
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August
1998, N351:
Conveners are routinely required to provide schedules for
all of the projects. Jim Moore provided the following schedules:
| Project | Name | CD (or PDTR) submitted for ballot | FDIS (or DTR) submitted for ballot | IS submitted for publication |
| 15291 | ASIS | Done | Done | 6/99 |
Currie presented a description of the ASIS Workshop recently held at SIGAda'98 on Sunday evening, 8 November 1998. One of the issues brought forth at that workshop was the availability of the ASIS package specification in electronic format. There was also discussion concerning secondary layers of ASIS (interfaces that can be developed from the existing ASIS interfaces).
Currie also said that there were currently four compiler vendors working on implementations of ASIS: Ada Core Technology (ASIS-for-GNAT), Aonix (imminent), DDC-I (expected in a few months), and Rational.
Convenor suggested that the National Bodies be notified at the JTC1 level to support a vote for ASIS.
[Agenda]
From Convener's Report, 1 July 1998, N345:
Project 22.15942 -- WD 15942 Guidance for the use of the Ada Programming
Language in High Integrity Systems, Brian Wichmann, Editor
From WG9/HRG, 30 April 1998: Working Draft Version 3.4, Guidance for the use of the Ada Programming Language in High Integrity Systems. Available as N342.
From Convener, 9 July 1998: Version 3.4 was forwarded to SC22 for information.
From Convener, 14 July 1998: Version 3.5 was submitted to WG9 for formal email ballot as N346.
From Convener, 17 August 1998: Formal email ballot concluded with WG9 approval.
From Convener, 17 August 1998: Version 3.5, N350, was hand-carried to SC22 Plenary meeting for its consideration.
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August 1998, N351: Resolution 98-U: Project Editor Appointments -- ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 approves the following appointments: ... Dr. Brian Wichmann (UK) as Project Editor for Project JTC 1.22.15942 -- Guidance for the use of the Ada programming language in high integrity systems (Type 3 Technical Report); ...
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August 1998, N351: Resolution 98-H: Approval of Registration of PDTR 15942 -- ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 approves the registration of PDTR 15942, Information technology -- Programming languages -- Guidance for the use of the Ada programming language in high integrity systems (Type 3 Technical Report), Project JTC 1.22.15942.
From Convener, 2 November 1998: This document is expected to go to PDTR ballot during November 1998.
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August
1998, N351:
Conveners are routinely required to provide schedules for
all of the projects. Jim Moore provided the following schedules:
| Project | Name | CD (or PDTR) submitted for ballot | FDIS (or DTR) submitted for ballot | IS submitted for publication |
| 15942 | High Integrity | 10/98 | 10/99 | 10/2000 |
From Brian Wichmann, 29 October 1998: An HRG meeting was held in July in which the outstanding comments on the then current version of the Guidelines were considered. Subsequent to the meeting, further e-mail comments have been made and attended to. Hence it is expected to release the SC22 ballot version today or tomorrow (ie, 98-10-29 or 98-10-30).
From Convener: Actually, the CD was approved and released a few days later than the previously mentioned dates.
[Agenda]
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August 1998, N351:
The terms of reference of WG11 were revised:
To study binding issues between programming languages and the abstract facilities with which they interface or interact, and to propose, develop and maintain ISO/IEC standards in this area.
ISO/IEC 10967-1:1994, Language Independent Arithmetic -- Part 1: Integer and Floating Point Arithmetic, will be reaffirmed.
[Agenda]
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August 1998, N351:
The C9X revision will incorporate extended character sets for use in identifiers. It was reaffirmed that the C and C++ languages will be permitted to evolve independently with no requirements for mutual compatibility. For example, both languages will provide facilities for complex arithmetic, but those facilities will be different.
Denmark has been unsuccessful in convincing this working group to adopt a Danish proposal for the inclusion of standardized low-level I/O facilities. The convener of the C++ WG suggested that they might be interested in the work.
From Convener: The revision of the C language is in FCD ballot. The ballot closes 8 January 1999. The ballot can be found at http://www.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/open/n2794.
[Agenda]
From SC22 N2748, WG15 Convener's [Jim Isaak] Report, June 30, 1998: "22.21.04.02, POSIX Ada Binding, Part 2 (Realtime). This project was incorporated into the fastrack revision of 14519 that just completed, it makes sense to withdraw this specific amendment as the work is now both complete, and integrated into the main document.
[Agenda]
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August 1998, N351:
The JTC1 plenary has decided that WG20 shall organizationally remain in SC22, but will nevertheless be a part of the new Technical Direction "Cultural and Linguistic Adaptability". WG20 has nominated 3 representatives to the TD planning meeting in New York.
The ECMA standard on "Registration of European Cultural Conventions" is being adopted as ISO/IEC 15897. Although there are a lot of procedural and political issues outstanding, the project was assigned to WG20 for maintenance. WG20 continues its work on extended character sets. It is probably now appropriate for WG9 to pay additional attention to this issue. The C++ DIS and the planned C9X revision both incorporate extended character sets, even for use in identifiers. COBOL is planning to permit this usage. Fortran is not.
Currently TR 10176 provides Guidelines for Programming Language standards. It provides a list of "portable characters" based on IS 10646. (Another relevant document is CD 14652.) Characters are frequently added to 10646. WG20 wants the list of portable characters to be "easily updatable". Most of the conveners objected to this idea because the list becomes a moving target. The conveners want the list to be updated infrequently and version-controlled.
There are a variety of issues. One involves the use of extended character sets in identifiers. This can present problems for case-insensitive languages because the mapping between lowercase and uppercase can cause ambiguities. The conventional wisdom seems to be that the canonical form for identifiers in such languages should be the lowercase form.
Another issue is the use of extended digit characters in numeric literals. (For example, Kanji has its own set of characters to represent digits.)
From a note by Tom Plum, Convener of WG14 (C++), 27 August 1998. There was general agreement here at the SC22 Plenary that the programming languages do NOT want 10176 to change its list anytime soon, now that's it's a final published TR, so this list should be stable for a few years.
There was also general agreement here that it may be best to regard the list as a "portable minimum", without making it non-conforming to accept more characters than are on the list.
From the Convener: SC22/WG20 is developing a standard, 15435, on APIs for "internationalization." The services to be defined will include:
The project editor (Keld Simonsen, Denmark) wonders if WG9 would be interested in providing an Ada binding to these APIs. Information can be found at: http://www.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg20.
[Agenda]
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August
1998, N351:
The FDIS for C++ was unanimously approved. They expect publication
of the standard imminently. They plan to propose a New Work Item
for the use of C++ in embedded and time-critical systems.
[Agenda]
From Plenary Meeting Report of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 24-28 August
1998, N351:
This WG has been disbanded upon the completion of their work.
[Agenda]
From SC22 N2757, ECMA Liaison Report for the August 1998 JTC 1/SC22 Plenary, Bob Mathis: My liaison with ECMA has primarily been with the TC-39 committee doing ECMAScript. ... ECMA TC-39 developed ECMA-262 ECMAScript which was submitted for ISO/IEC Fast-Track as DIS 16262. That ballot completed successfully and comments were resolved at a meeting on June 15, 1998. The related documents have all been forwarded through the appropriate committees. I expect the revised ECMA standard and newly approved ISO/IEC standard will be published in late summer 1999. This process has gone very smoothly because of close communication and cooperation between ECMA and SC22. ... In both the Java Study Group and ECMA TC-39, it was decided that ECMA TC-39 should continue as the organization responsible for continued evolution and maintenance of the ISO/IEC 16262 standard. TC-39 is working on the next version of the ECMAScript and considering further work on scripting components. They would like to maintain close liaison with SC22 in this work. I am willing to continue as an ECMA liaison from SC22, particularly with regard to ECMAScript. ... Other SC22-ECMA related activities (e.g., PCTE) are best reported by others. Information on ECMA activities is available from http://www.ecma.ch. That site also contains downloadable copies of their standards.
From SC22 N2758, SC22/JSG Convener's Report for the August 1998 JTC 1/SC22 Plenary, Bob Mathis: The Java Study Group (JSG) has not had a meeting this year. ... JTC1's approval of Sun's application to be recognized as a PAS submitter has determined the JTC1-level approach to Java standardization. Sun has not yet made a submission of a Java PAS. Public announcements indicate a target date of early 1999. It might be sooner, but I certainly expect the submission between the 1998 and 1999 SC22 Plenaries. SC22 needs to continue its study period to be prepared to respond as Java comes into JTC1 for consideration. ... At least France, Japan, UK, and US have formed separate groups corresponding to SC22's JSG. Leaders of these groups have informally indicated the possibility of related issues that might be considered as Java comes into standards consideration. I think the JSG should have another meeting before Sun makes its submission to discuss SC22's role and the impact of related issues. ... I recommend that the Study Period which led to the formation of the Java Study Group be continued for another year. The scope and method of working should be the same as when the group was set up and continued last year. All participants in the work of SC22 (and members of national bodies) who are interested in Java (and related technologies) (the scope of JSG) should subscribe to our e-mail list, see http://www.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/jsg.
From convener: Requests for additional information and/or other questions should be directed to the Convener: Bob Mathis, bob@pithecanthropus.com or +1-614-538-9232 or Bob_Mathis@compuserve.com.
From Bob Mathis, Convener, SC22 Java Study Group, 20 October 1998: I do not plan to attend the WG9 meeting. The Java Study Group remains active with a meeting in Japan on October 26-27. [Venue and agenda information can be found at SC22 N2826 -- JWM.] WG9 members are always welcome to join our e-mail list, see http://www.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/jsg. No news from Sun on the PAS.
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The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has requested an Ada language binding to XML. IEEE may collaborate with W3C to develop the XML standard as an IEEE standard. Convener has taken an action to check into this.
The ARA recognized that they need to be involved in other ISO working groups; the ARA may support travel for someone.
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The minutes of Meeting #34 as contained in document N344 and the resolutions of that meeting as contained in document N343 are approved.
Approved unanimously.
[Discussion.] [Agenda]
Meetings #37 and #38 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 are scheduled as follows:
Approved unanimously.
[Discussion] [Agenda]
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 continues the following Rapporteur Groups until the next plenary meeting and expresses its grateful appreciation to their chairs for their continuing service:
WG9 continues the Annex H Rapporteur Group until the next plenary meeting and appoints Alan Burns of the UK as its chair.
Approved unanimously.
WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to Brian Wichmann for his dedicated service as Chair of the Annex H Rapporteur Group.
Approved unanimously.
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ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to David Emery for his leadership in exploring the need for an Interfaces Rapporteur Group.
Approved unanimously.
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WG9 expresses its gratitude to SIGAda and to the US National Body for their gracious accommodations in hosting Meeting #35.
Approved unanimously.
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ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to Clyde Roby for serving as secretary of Meeting #35.
Approved unanimously.
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to Clyde Roby for maintaining the WG9 Web Page.
Approved unanimously.
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ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 congratulates Don Sando, Jon Squire and the Numerics Rapporteur Group on their completion of ISO/IEC 13813 and ISO/IEC 13814.
Approved unanimously.
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The ARG is directed to prepare a draft of the conformity assessment standard for Working Group ballot; the convener is directed to conduct Working Group ballot via email; and the ARG is directed to dispose of comments from the Working Group ballot and prepare a draft for combined CD registration and FCD approval ballot.
Approved unanimously.
[Agenda] [Discussion]
The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:30 PM.
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End of Document