To: WG5 members From: Miles Ellis _ Acting Convenor Subject: Various matters 1. Future distribution of documents In the last distribution, I proposed that future document distribution to WG5 members should be by electronic means rather than paper (N1077). In Tokyo this position was unanimously endorsed by WG5, and paper N1121 in this distribution contains a questionnaire intended to ascertain individual preferences. I expect this to be the last major paper distribution to the full WG5 membership. Please complete the questionnaire and return it to me before June 30th, so that I can ensure that future distributions are as efficient and as economic as possible, while continuing to ensure that all members continue to receive all the information that they need and are entitled to. The exact arrangements for the WG5 ftp server are not yet finalised, but I shall ensure that everyone is informed when it and the World Wide Web pages are up and running. 2. Processing of the Fortran 95 CD The draft CD for Fortran 95 is being copied by the SC22 Secretariat as I write these words, and will shortly be issued for the combined CD registration and approval letter ballot. This ballot will close on 28th September. This is only a couple of days after the SC22 Plenary, and I have agreed with Bill Rinehuls, the SC22 Secretariat, that he will bring a diskette with him to the meeting containing all the ballot comments received by the time that he leaves for Annapolis (which is only round the corner from where he lives, as it happens), and that he will send the remaining comments to me by email on the day the ballot closes. In this way I expect to be able to place the complete set of ballot comments on the WG5 server on Friday 29th September. This should allow ample time for members and national bodies to thoroughly analyse them in advance of the WG5 meeting in San Diego, 6-10 November. I shall also distribute the comments in other forms to those who have indicated that they are unable to obtain documents from the WG5 server although, inevitable, they will not be available quite as quickly as the server versions. Our hope is that it will be possible to resolve all the comments at the San Diego meeting. If this is, indeed, achieved, then as soon as the revised document is available I shall place it on the server and, where appropriate, distribute it in other forms for members to check, and will conduct an informal confirmatory ballot to ensure that the document does reflect the decisions taken by WG5 in San Diego. Following this, the document will be submitted for DIS balloting. The reason for the confirmatory ballot is, of course, that the current JTC1 procedures mean that the draft cannot be altered in any way (other than for minor typos) once it has gone to a DIS ballot without returning to Stage 3, thus requiring a repeat of the CD ballot before it can be resubmitted for DIS balloting. The San Diego meeting will, therefore, be very important and I urge everyone who can do so to attend. It was disappointing to find only seven members (4 UK, 2 US and 1 Germany) attending the last meeting, apart from our Japanese hosts (6) and myself. I have not yet received any details about accommodation, travel, etc. from the hosts of the San Diego meeting (US), but will circulate these as soon as they are available. 3. Accelerating Fortran Development One of the other decisions of the Tokyo meeting was to use Technical Reports as a way of speeding up the development of a limited number of features which are felt to be too urgent to wait for the next full version. Paper N1111 describes this policy, which was unanimously adopted by resolution T7. Paper N1123 is a similar paper which I was asked to prepare for SC22 to make them aware of our new policy in advance of the anticipated request for three New Work Items at the September Plenary. Resolutions T8, T9 and T10 appoint three interim Project Editors for three proposed Technical Reports covering Floating Point Exceptions, Interoperability with C, and Data Type Enhancements, respectively, and papers N1117, N1114 and N1115 contain more details of the proposed scope and timescale of these projects. If any members have a particular interest in any of these areas and are prepared to devote some time to developing the relevant proposals, I urge you to contact the appropriate interim editor as soon as possible. The whole point of this new approach is to work fairly quickly, mainly by email, and, in particular, to have reached a stage where a New Work Item Proposal can be submitted for approval at the SC22 Plenary in September. Since it is clearly necessary to carry out an informal ballot of the WG5 membership before submitting any such NP to SC22, I need to have the proposed documents by late JUly in order that I can distribute them in time to get a response before mid-September. The three interim project editors are as follows: Floating Point Exceptions: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang V Walter Technische Universitt Dresden Institut fr Wissenschaftliches Rechnen Fachrichtung Mathematik Mommsenstrae 13 D - 01062 Dresden GERMANY Email: wwalter@math.tu-dresden.de Interoperability with C: Jamie Shiers CN Division CERN 1211 Geneva 23 SWITZERLAND Email: jamie.shiers@cern.ch Data Type Enhancements: Dr Lawrie Schonfelder Director Computing Services Department University of Liverpool PO Box 147 Liverpool L69 3BX ENGLAND Email: jls@liverpool.ac.uk I hope that you all have an enjoyable summer, and I look forward to seeing many of you in San Diego.