JTC1/SC22
N3637
From:ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces
Secretariat: U.S.A. (ANSI)
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N3637
TITLE:
SC 22/WG 3 Business Plan/Convener's Report
DATE ASSIGNED:
2003-09-02
SOURCE:
SC 22/WG 3 Convenor (L. Dickey)
BACKWARD POINTER:
N/A
DOCUMENT TYPE:
Other document (Open)
PROJECT NUMBER:
STATUS:
As this document was received after the 15 August deadline, it will be
reviewed at the upcoming SC 22 Plenary under Agenda Item 8.1 pending
approval for addition to the agenda.
ACTION IDENTIFIER:
FYI
DUE DATE:
N/A
DISTRIBUTION:
Text
CROSS REFERENCE:
DISTRIBUTION FORM:
Open
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 cover page, beginning of report____
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG3 - Programming Language APL
WG3 Business Plan and Convener's Report to the
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 2003 Plenary
Period covered by this report: August 2002 to August 2003.
Date of preparation: August, 2003
Submitted by:
Prof. Leroy J Dickey
Convener, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 3
Faculty of Mathematics
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L 3G1
E-mail: ljdickey@uwaterloo.ca
1. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
1.1 JTC1/SC22/WG-3 Statement of Scope
Development and maintenance of ISO/IEC Standards
related to programming language APL
1.2 Project Report
1.2.1 Completed Projects
JTC 1.22.09.01 Programming Language APL, ISO/IEC 8485:1989
JTC 1.22.24.01 Programming Language Extended APL, IS 13751
1.2.2 Projects Underway
JTC 1.22.09.02 Character Repertoire for APL
intended for inclusion with ISO/IEC 8485
JTC 1.22.24.02 Character Repertoire for Extended APL
intended for inclusion with IS 13751
Both of these project have passed the DIS phase and
final copy is now being prepared. Delivery is expected
by the end of October.
1.2.3 Canceled Projects
None
1.3 Cooperation and Competition
There are no competing standards for APL. The
international standards 8485 and 13751 stand out
as the primary references for APL implementers.
The Unicode Consortium kindly granted use of graphic
images which we have included with the APL Character
Repertoire.
2. PERIOD REVIEW
2.1 Market Requirements
APL is a general purpose computing language that excels
at applications that benefit by the organization of
data in large arrays and has found users in a wide
range of applications involving financial, actuarial,
manufacturing, and many phases of management.
Outside the insurance industry, one of the major groups
of users is in the management and use of large
financial data sets, such as, for example, stock
trading history. Both APL and some of its derivatives
are successfully used here.
Another group of APL users uses optimization algorithms
to solve scheduling problems for the transportation of
people and goods.
One specialized use is in assemblyline control for
the manufacture of disk drives. Though the running
of this particular task does not exploit what some
consider to be strongest points of APL, it does
illustrate the broad scope of applicability.
One recent niche applications that does exploit such
strengths have appeared as an integrating part of a
popular large-business management system.
One major financial house (Morgan Stanley) developed
a dialect of APL for their own internal use. This
subset, called A+, is tuned to their trading needs.
It is now publically available.
Other specialized subsets and variations of APL called
K and Kdb have appeared and are replacing some popular
general purpose data base programs. These highly
specialized tools are little known, outside their
sphere of application.
The vendor of another APL variation called J is
enjoying some popularity now, and has won some APL
users who think that J may replace APL. However, there
is currently only one J vendor, and the need for a
standard is questionable.
One amazing industry practice is illustrated by a major
developer who has a client requiring software written
in programming language Ada. Because of the advantages
of offered by modeling in APL, development is done in
the higher level language and translated to Ada for
before delivery.
2.2 Achievements
The APL Working Group is proud to report that the
projects
JTC 1.22.09.01 Programming Language APL
JTC 1.22.24.01 Programming Language Extended APL
have resulted in high quality works that stand out as
the primary authority for APL implementors and
programmers. Likewise, the projects
JTC 1.22.09.02 Character Repertoire for APL
JTC 1.22.24.02 Character Repertoire for Extended APL
have already made a positive impact on the SCAR
project, since the APL Character Repertoire provides a
foundation for the identification of all special
symbols used in APL programming, and provides the basis
for transfer of information between differing APL
implementations.
2.3 Resources
The working group WG3 meets as needed, usually once a
year in conjunction with the annual APL Programing
Language Conference sponsored by The Special Interest
Group for APL, a member group of the Association for
Computing Machinery. This conjunction has greatly
aided the assembly of experts.
However, for many APL experts, the most exciting part
of the standards work is over because the most
interesting technical decisions have been made.
Examples of these are the brilliant specialized
functions such as "fuzzy floor", and ever useful
"domino" functions for instance, which played a major
role in ISO 8485 and the more recently introduced items
in IS 13751, such as (i) the rank operator for arrays,
(ii) the box and enclose functions and (iii) the
representation of complex numbers and the all important
value of (-1) raised to the power (n/k).
As a consequence we have experienced a decline in
interest and participation. Candidates for project
editors are scarce.
3. FOCUS for the NEXT WORK PERIOD
3.1 Deliverables
The final text of the APL Character Repertoire in HTML
and PDF format is imminent.
3.2 Strategies
3.2.1 Risks
In adition to the phenomenon mentioned above in the
second paragraph of section "2.3 Resources", a point of
contention is that some of the world's leading APL
experts, in some instances previously members of WG3,
have suffered from barriers to official participation
by their respective national bodies. It is my view
that qualified experts who volunteer their time should
be encouraged rather than turned away for pecuniary
reasons.
3.2.2 Opportunities
There is need for a new standard for moving data
between APL applications and applications running in
other languages. Several APL vendors have cooperated
in the implementation of a "Self Contained Array
Representation" (SCAR). There is need and interest
in the development of this idea, and it it ripe for
standardization.
SCAR developers claim that they can use this scheme to
communicate not only between sessions of different
implementations of APL but also with applications
running in other languages.
As a side note, the APL Character Repertoire has aided
in this effort, even though the APL Character
Repertoire is not yet a published standard.
3.3 Work Program Priorities
3.3.1 First priority:
Deliver APL Character Repertoire
3.3.2 Second priority:
Explore feasibility of a new project
on Self Contained Array Representation.
3.3.3 Third priority:
WG3, the APL Working Group, will continue into a
maintenance mode for the two standards APL (8485) and
APL Extended (13751) and will stand prepared to answer
questions and provide interpretation and prepare
corrigenda, if needed.
4. Other Items
4.1 Action Requests for WG3
4.1.1
Renew ISO/IEC 8485, when it is time to do so.
4.1.2
Renew IS 13751, when it is time to do so.
4.1.3
New Project: Self Contained Array Specification
4.2 WG3 Meetings
Currently by electronic mail
4.3 Most Recent face-to-face Meeting
Berlin, 2000-07-23.
4.4 Future Meetings
Future meetings will continue by electronic mail, at the
least. No face-to-face meetings are scheduled at this
time.
----- end of convenor's report and business plan -----