ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5-N1857

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

          UK National Activity Report presented to the meeting of
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 (Fortran), Garching, Germany, June 27 - July 1, 2011 

Membership and meetings
There are 18 members, including observers, of the BSI Fortran Panel. One 
member of the BSI Panel is also a member of J3 and one member is WG5 convenor 
and an alternate member of J3.  The panel meets only when there are issues to 
be resolved which cannot be decided otherwise. There have been no meetings 
since the last WG5 meeting.

JTC1 and SC22 ballots
The UK vote in the ballot on FDIS 1539-1 was approval.  The opinions of the
panel had not shifted significantly from the negative vote on the FCD and it
was proposed that the UK now abstain in order to reflect the continuing lack
of consensus.  However the BSI Secretariat's advice was that abstention at
this stage would be against JTC1 Procedures.

In the ballot on TR19767 (Enhanced Module Facilities) the UK vote was to 
stabilize and to withdraw as soon as 1539-1:2010 was published; this is what 
has happened.

In the ballot on 1539-3:1999 (Conditional Compilation) the UK vote was to 
withdraw.  The result of the ballot was to confirm the standard.

British Fortran Standards
In December 2010 BSI reissued 1539-1 as British Standard BS ISO/IEC
1539-1:2010.  Apart from additional cover pages and page headers it is
identical to the ISO version.  The only justification for the republication
is for possible legal or contractual use.  The former beneficial side effect
of committee members being provided with paper copies of such standards has
changed to permission to download a pdf version.

Similarly, British versions of TR 15580 and TR 15581 exist and are now going 
through the formal processes for deletion, four years after deletion of the 
original ISO versions.

Activity
Since the last WG5 meeting the principal activity of the panel has been
discussion of the Interoperability TR, both within the UK and in the wider
debate in WG5.

Members of the panel contributed to the UK vote on the FCD of Language 
Independent Arithmetic (ISO/IEC 10967-1) particularly with regard to the 
Fortran annex.

Acknowledgement
The BSI Fortran Panel gratefully acknowledges financial support from the
British Computer Society Membership Board.

David Muxworthy
IST/5/-/5 (Fortran) Convenor
June 24, 2011