SC22/WG20 N704
ISO/IEC
JTC 1/SC22
Programming
languages, their environments and system software interfaces
Secretariat: U.S.A.
(ANSI)
ISO/IEC
JTC 1/SC22
N2986
TITLE:
Ireland
National Body Activity Report for the September 1999 JTC 1/SC22
Plenary
- PLENARY AGENDA ITEM
DATE
ASSIGNED:
1999-09-02
SOURCE:
Secretariat,
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22
BACKWARD
POINTER:
N/A
DOCUMENT
TYPE:
National
Body Activity Report
PROJECT
NUMBER:
N/A
STATUS:
Discussion
of this document will be an agenda item for the September 1999
JTC
1/SC22 Plenary
ACTION
IDENTIFIER:
FYI
DUE
DATE:
N/A
DISTRIBUTION:
Text
CROSS
REFERENCE:
N/A
DISTRIBUTION
FORM:
Def
Address
reply to:
ISO/IEC
JTC 1/SC22 Secretariat
William
C. Rinehuls
8457
Rushing Creek Court
Springfield,
VA 22153 USA
Telephone: +1 (703) 912-9680
Fax: +1 (703) 912-2973
email: rinehuls@radix.net
___________
end of title page; beginning of report _________________
As
reported last year, the Irish Member Body really has as its particular
interest
only one project of one WG of SC22, namely ISO/IEC 14651 of
SC22/WG20,
which is concerned with sorting the UCS. One member of the
NSAI/AGITS/WG6
has an interest in C++, but apparently he works directly
with
the relevant SC22/WG and has not reported to WG6 about it.
As
convener of WG6 I continue to find it rather burdensome to have to deal
with
all the SC22 correspondence and make sure Ireland votes on time and
so
forth when our chief interest is in one standard made by one SC22/WG.
The
relation between ISO/IEC 10646 and ISO/IEC 14651 is of extreme
importance.
The fact that ISO/IEC 10646 and the Unicode Standard are
technically
identical is highly relevant here. The Unicode Technical
Committee
handles _both_ encoding and ordering, in the Unicode Standard
and the
Unicode Collation Algorithm. US and Canadian members of SC22/WG20
are
also members of the UTC and JTC1/SC2. Administering ISO/IEC 10646 and
ISO/IEC
14651 in two different SCs is impractical and needlessly expensive.
Ireland
urges SC22 in the strongest possible terms to recommend and
initiate
immediate transfer of responsibility for ISO/IEC 14651 to
JTC1/SC2.
There is nothing so overwhelmingly relevant to "programming
languages"
or "internationalization" with regard to ISO/IEC 14651 that it
must
remain administered by SC22. It is an algorithm for ordering
characters,
but the algorithm has been developed, and maintenance of the
Common
Template as ISO/IEC 10646 grows can only be done by an SC that
understands
the characters.
Ireland
is considering withdrawing from P-membership in SC22 because of
the
issues raised above. The only reason we have not done so is our sense
of duty
to ISO/IEC 14651. SC22 should consider in plenary the implications
of the
contemplated Irish withdrawal from SC22 with regard to ISO/IEC
14651,
especially in consideration of the minimum number of participating
countries
for any project or WG.
Michael
Everson
Convener,
NSAI/AGITS/WG6
_______________________
end of SC22 N2986 ______________________________