JTC1/SC22 N3249

From:ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces
Secretariat:  U.S.A.  (ANSI)
 
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N 3249
 
TITLE:
SC 22/WG 20 Request to ITTF for Guidance 

DATE ASSIGNED:
2001-06-07
 
SOURCE:
SC 22/WG 20 Convener (A. Winkler)

BACKWARD POINTER:
N/A
 
DOCUMENT TYPE:
Other document (Open)

PROJECT NUMBER:
N/A
 
STATUS:
This request has been sent to ITTF for its review and recommendation.
 
ACTION IDENTIFIER:
ACT
 
DUE DATE:
  
DISTRIBUTION:
Text

CROSS REFERENCE:
 
DISTRIBUTION FORM:
Open
 
Address reply to:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 Secretariat
Matt Deane
ANSI
25 West 43rd Street
New York, NY  10036
Telephone:  (212) 642-4992
Fax:             (212) 840-2298
Email:  mdeane@ansi.org

______________end of title page, beginning of
document____________________________

SC22/WG20 N838
May 11, 2001

Request to ITTF for consideration and advice.

Source:  SC22/WG20


In its meeting in May 2001, WG20 discussed the status of TR 10176, where the
continuously growing repertoire of ISO/IEC 10646 impacts the table of
characters which are allowed as identifiers in programming languages.  

Each approved amendment to ISO/IEC 10646 adds characters and requires TR
10176 with its identifier table to be revised and re-published since TRs can
not be amended.

The same situation is true for TR 14652, and IS 14651; both these projects
are strongly related to the 10646 repertoire and need constant revisions.

We are asking ITTF to consider the following possibility to easily keep the
table up to date without re-publishing the Technical Report:

	*	The text of the TR contains the link to a document on an
ITTF controlled web site.
	*	The web document contains links to the versioned tables
	*	The newer versions contain all characters of the older ones,
thus are backward compatible.
	*	The compiler can claim conformance to versions of ISO/IEC
10646 by selecting the table that represents its repertoire of characters
allowed as identifiers.

This method would allow that :

	*	new tables of characters in TR 10176 for use in identifiers
can be approved and published much faster than today 
	*	implementers can select from a variety of repertoires to
meet their requirements
	*	implementations will be able to use earlier tables
	*	the tables are related to specific versions of ISO/IEC 10646



Not only TR 10176 would profit from such a publication option, but also TR
14652 and possibly other TRs.  WG20 is asking ITTF to consider allowing this
method for Technical Reports the same way as it is already approved for
International Standards.  The best example is ISO/IEC 14651, where the
Common Template Table resides on the ITTF web site and where a new revision
of the table is in preparation.

For further information or discussion of technical details please contact
WG20 through its convenor Arnold F. Winkler (also editor of TR 10176).

Arnold F. Winkler