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 _________________

 

 

1.    Irish National Report to ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22

 

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 ______________________________