ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 - N239

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

          UK National Activity Report presented to the meeting of
         ISO/TC97/SC22/WG5 (Fortran), Liverpool, UK, August 3-7 1987.


The UK voted "yes with comments" in the WG5 informal letter ballot in December
1986 on the draft revision of ISO l539—l980. The principal comment was that the
document should be issued for public review as soon as possible. Votes from
individual UK WG5 members were : yes 2: yes with comments 4: no with comments 1.

For the past few years the UK report has mentioned activity on a Fortran—
related standard which is intended to promote the use of ISO 1539—198O and to
promote the portability of Fortran programs. After a number of administrative
delays this standard has finally been approved as BS6832:1987 "British Standard
Method for Specifying requirements for a FORTRAN language processor" and is now
being printed. The document (of 30 pages) is expected to be available in
November 1987 and copies will be obtainable from BSI (Sales Department, BSI,
Linford Wood, Milton Keynes MK14 6LE, UK)

Industrial Real Time Fortran (ISO 7846-1985) has been endorsed as a British
Standard (BS6831:1987).

Since the last WGS meeting X3J3 has appointed John Reid of AERE Harwell as
secretary and has also appointed two new British members, bringing the total of
UK based members to six. This increased UK involvement is reflected in the
holding of the second X3J3 meeting outside North America in Liverpool on
August 10—14.

The British Computer Society Fortran Special 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 XJJ3
meeting, and at which there have been a number of presentations including two
on Fortran tools.


David Muxworthy
IST/5/5 (Fortran) Convenor
July 31, 1987