ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5-N723

                 BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION
          COMMITTEE ON PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (IST/5)

    UK National Activity Report presented to the meeting of
    ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 (Fortran), Lund, June 24-28, 1991

The UK vote on DIS 1539 was "approval with editorial comments".  Members of the
BSI Fortran Panel hosted the additional WG5 meeting held in London on March 18
to 22, 1991 at which the "no" vote on the DIS was resolved and the editorial
comments from the member bodies were processed into a single change document
(WG5/N683).  The UK panel congratulates all those involved, particularly the
convenor and project editor, in producing the final document and delivering it
to the ISO Central Secretariat in such a short time following the London
meeting. 

While welcoming the fact that the ANSI standard is to be technically the same
as the ISO standard, the UK panel notes that BSI general policy for programming
language standards continues to be that international standards should have
overriding priority; where a national standard is needed for non-technical
reasons, such as legal reasons, for a language for which an international
standard exists, it should be a simple affirmation of the corresponding
international standard. 

At its meeting in March 1991 the BSI committee on programming languages passed
the following resolution, addressed to SC22 and to the Technical University of
Vienna, "BSI:IST/5 Programming Languages, the UK equivalent to ISO/IEC
JTC1/SC22, has learned with dismay and regret of the decision which has led to
the resignation of Gerhard Schmitt from SC22 and its working groups.  IST/5
wishes to record its gratitude and admiration for the many important
contributions made by Gerhard Schmitt to international standardization, and to
express the hope that he will soon be allowed to resume his work representing
Austria in this international activity.". 

The British Computer Society Fortran Specialist Group continues to be the main
open forum for discussion of Fortran matters in the UK.  Regular meetings have
been held, at each of which an X3J3 member has reported on the most recent X3J3
events, and at which there have been a number of presentations on
Fortran-related matters.  Mike Roth has succeeded John Wilson as chairman; both
are active WG5 members. 

In June 1991 a UK company announced what is claimed to be the world's first
Fortran 90 compiler, implementing the full ISO Fortran 90 language. 

The number of UK-based members of X3J3 is four, Alan Wilson having retired
during the past year; an X3J3 meeting was held in Oxford on August 20 to 24,
1990. 

                                             David Muxworthy
                                             IST/5/-/5 (Fortran) Convenor
                                             June 21, 1991