ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5-N1485
     
                      BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION
               COMMITTEE ON PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (IST/5)
     
          UK National Activity Report presented to the meeting of
     ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 (Fortran), Las Vegas, NV, August 11-16, 2002

Membership and meetings
The BSI Fortran Panel has 24 members, including observers.  The panel's
business is normally conducted by e-mail and it meets only when there
are issues to be resolved which cannot be decided otherwise.  There have
been no panel meetings since the last WG5 meeting.  One member is also a
member of J3. 
 
The project editors for two of the Technical Reports and for part 2 of
the Fortran standard are members of the BSI panel, as of course is the
WG5 convenor. 

JTC1 and SC22 votes
BSI voted as follows in the Fortran-related ballots since the last WG5
meeting:
- Addition to programme of work of Technical Report on Enhanced Module
  Facilities in Fortran: yes
- Technical corrigendum 2 to ISO/IEC 1539:1997: yes with comments

Formal British adoption of Fortran 95
It was reported two years ago that the BSI policy of not adopting an ISO
standard until it had been endorsed as an EN (European standard) had
caused delays in Fortran 95 becoming a British standard.  Fortran 95 was
finally issued as a BS on November 26, 2001.  There had been discussions
about following the normal BSI practice of integrating corrigenda into
the text of the standard but in the event the standard was issued with
Technical Corrigendum 1 bound in as a 'National Annex'.  It is
anticipated that Technical Corrigendum 2 will be treated similarly. 
(Paper copies of British Standards are printed to order and no stocks
are held). 

This delay has had no technical effect, but could have had legal
implications, for example for contracts. 

Reissue of BS ISO/IEC 1539-3:1999
The British version of Part 3 of the Fortran standard (Conditional
Compilation) contained the same error as that in the corresponding ISO
standard.  ISO published a corrected reprint in December 2000.  The BS
was re-issued 'Including Corrigendum No. 1' on February 25, 2002. 

Reduced Price Language Standards
In April 2002, in an effort to boost sales of programming language
standards, BSI reduced the hard copy price of most standards of more
than 100 pages to GBP40 (reduced from GBP198 in the case of Fortran);
the price of shorter standards is GBP30.  Most standards are also
available for download in pdf for subscribers to the BS-online service. 

British Computer Society Fortran Specialist Group
The British Computer Society Fortran Specialist Group has 225 members. 
It has held one meeting during the year, at which two members gave
presentations.  It is to hold a Fortran Forum in London on October 30,
2002 at which the principal new features of Fortran 2000 will be
presented and discussed.  The British Computer Society has also awarded
the Group special funding in order to help the UK contribution to
Fortran standardization during 2003. 

                                          David Muxworthy
                                          IST/5/-/5 (Fortran) Convenor
                                          July 23, 2002