ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1668 

Convener's notes on the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 2006 Plenary


1. Fortran 2008

It seems that a New Work Item (NWI) does not need to be established
for the revision of a standard. This is a relief to me since I thought
it was needed and had not prepared the document. It was agreed
(Resolution 06-16) that ISO/IEC 1539-1:2004 is now under
revision. Actually, this could have been deferred until next year
since our schedule says that the first draft will be submitted in
October 2007. I decided not to defer it since the truth of the matter
is that the standard is 'under revision' and I do not want it to look
as if the schedule is slipping.


2. TR on further interoperability with C

Resolution 06-14 instructs the secretariat to conduct a NWI ballot on
a type 2 TR on further interoperability with C. I will send the
document that I circulated by email a couple of months ago to the
secretariat next week when I am back in my office (and make it N1667).


3. Final processing of documents

A significant concern for WG5 is the final processing of documents by
ITTF. You will recall that changes were made to Corrigendum 1 without
consultation. Last year, SC22 passed this resolution:

..............................................
Resolution 05-06: Document Submission to ITTF

JTC 1/SC 22 notes that its project editors have been having substantial
problems with the publication process.  For example, in a number of recent
publications, internal bookmarks were removed, rendering the documents
difficult to navigate.

JTC 1/SC 22 instructs its Secretariat to request the ITTF to allow the
following mode of processing to be applied at the request of the project
editor before publication of a JTC 1/SC 22 standard, TR, or corrigendum.
1. The project editor sends the approved format file (currently PDF)
   together with any additional source files necessary for ITTF to note
   and verify changes.
2. The ITTF lists the changes it requires.
3. The project editor constructs a new approved format and source files and
   sends them.
4. Steps 2. and 3. are repeated until no changes are needed.
The purpose of this procedure is to improve the quality of the final document.

Unanimous
..............................................

This resolution seems to have been completely ignored by ITTF. My
suggestion was that John Hill (SC22 chairman) speak directly with the
person in charge of publications at ITTF and I got the procedure
(steps 1-4) repeated in a new resolution that instructs John to do
this.


4. Free availability of documents

Another significant concern for WG5 is the free availability of
documents, specially TRs. Other WGs, specially C, felt even more
strongly than us about it and there was a break-out session to discuss
it. John Hill was also charged with asking ITTR for a document
outlining the requirements for free availability to be created. The
best that is available now is
         http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/open/n4114.pdf

A resolution asked for TR's like ours, which contain no self-contained
implementatable specifications, to be freely available.

There was also a separate resolution on TR 19767 (enhanced module
facilities) to be made freely available with the following rationale:
ISO/IEC TR 19767 is not a standalone document. It is of little use
without the base document ISO/IEC 1539-1:2004. The free availability
of this document will promote awareness of existing JTC 1 work and
will create sales of current JTC 1 documents. JTC 1/SC22 believes that
this request falls under the rules for the selection of criteria
contained in JTC 1/SC22 N 4114 (JTC 1 N 7269).

We could not see a reason in N 4114 for making the two earlier TRs
freely available, since they depend on an outdated standard that is
now available for a nominal price ($30). I think that they, too,
should be available for a nominal price, but pricing is outwith the
scope of SC22. It was suggested that we should raise this matter
through our national bodies.