This file contains update and status reports on the international Standards Organization. (Ada IC point of contact: Greg Kee) October 8, 1986 INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION Interest in recommending Ada* for International Standardization arose as early as l979, four years before Ada became an ANSI Standard. In response to this interest, the U.S. member body to the International Standards Organization (ISO) prepared Ada as a new work item to the ISO Technical Committee 97 (ISO/TC 97) in September l980 using the July l, l980 edition of the Ada Programming Language Reference Manual as the proposed standard document. Due to procedural difficulties encountered by the U.S. member body, the submittor of the proposed new work item, the letter ballot sent out in September l980 remained open until May l98l. The responses received were all supportive, with additional comments submitted by a few of the member body countries. This ballot qualified Ada as a new work item and assigned Ada to ISO/TC 97/SC 5. Along with its ballot, the U.S. had proposed the formation of an Ada Experts Group and offered to host its first meeting on September 24-25, l98l, in Washington, D.C. The DoD had asked ANSI to petition ISO to authorize them to convene this Experts Group meeting so that the international community could be given a voice in the consideration of language issues during the domestic ANSI processing of Ada as a voluntary U.S. ANSI Standard. Dr. Larry Druffel, Director of the Ada Joint Program Office, was named convenor of this Ada Experts Group meeting. The meeting was held as scheduled and language issues as well as the various Ada-related international activities were discussed. At the close of the meeting, Dr. Druffel reminded the group that he had no current authority from SC5 to schedule further meetings, but indicated that he would reconvene this group after the report of the first meeting was presented to SC5 and SC5 then gave him an official ISO designation. He suggested that May or June l982 would be appropriate since it was anticipated that an editorial draft of the ANSI Standard document would be available at that time. Unfortunately, the results of parallel activities conducted during l98l precluded a second meeting of this Ada Experts Group. Although willing to support work towards the international standardization of Ada, some member countries had concerns about and requested clarification of the implications of the DoD requirements for a trademarked Ada and DoD validated compilers. Correspondence, discussions, and clarifications on the Ada trademark requirements continued from l98l into l983. In December l983 this issue was finally resolved to ISO's satisfaction when the Director of AJPO, Dr. Mathis, reported that the U.S. DoD, owner of the trademarked term 'Ada*', had agreed to allow international standardization of Ada to proceed under that name and to the assignment of Ada as a name to their final standard. On January l3, l984, ISO/TC 97 approved confirmation of Project 97.5.l4, work toward international standardization of Ada. The original Ada Experts Group was expanded and became ISO/TC 97/SC 5/WG 14, Working Group l4 on Ada. Dr. Mathis, the convenor, scheduled the first meeting for April l0-ll, l984, in Paris, France. Seven additional meetings have been held since then: June 25, l984, in Brussels; November 27, l984, in Washington, D.C.; February 26, l985, in San Jose, California; May 13, 1985 in Paris, France; November 18, 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts; February 24, 1986 in Los Angeles, California; and May 9, 1986 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The next meeting is planned for November 17-18, 1986 in Charleston, West Virginia. During this time, the Ada Programming Language Reference Manual, ANSI/MIL-STD-l8l5A-l983 was registered with ISO as document ISO/TC 97/SC 5 N759. On July 24, l984, SC5 sent out letter ballots to all member bodies to vote on the registration of N759 as an ISO Draft Proposal (DP). Document N759 was approved unanimously by member countries to be registered as a DP, as announced by SC5 on September l8, l984. Document N759 became ISO Draft Proposal 8652 (DP8652). In the meantime, ISO/TC97 was undergoing an internal structural change. The Subcommittee which had been responsible for the Ada Project, SC5, was subdivided into two groups; SC2l-Information Retrieval, Transfer and Management of OSI and SC22-Programming Languages and Applications Environments. Ada was assigned to SC22 and was renumbered as ISO/TC 97/SC 22/WG 9. In addition, the Secretariat function for SC22 was assumed by Canada, whereas ANSI, USA, had provided that function for SC5. On January l5, l985, the new SC22 Secretariat, Mr. Cote, circulated a letter ballot to SC22 member bodies to vote on registration of DP8652 as a Draft International Standard (DIS). The closing date for ballots was April l5, l985. The ballot approved Ada as a Draft International Standard. ISO/DIS 8652 Programming Language-Ada will be circulated for TC97 member body vote during the second week of January 1986. The ballot will remain open for six (6) months. The main goal of WG9 has been to propose an Ada Programming Language Reference Manual to the ISO community and assist it through the process of becoming the International Standard for Ada. Since becoming an ANSI Standard in 1983, the Ada Programming Language Reference Manual has been (and still is) widely commented upon. These comments have all been forwarded to the WG9, which has reviewed them and found none so major as to require a rewrite of the manual at this time. In its Brussels meeting, WG 9 passed the following resolution concerning the rewrite of the Ada Programming Language Reference manual: ISO/TC 97/SC 5/WG l4 assigns high priority to resolving issues of interpretation of the existing Working Document by the end of l986. Furthermore, it agrees to defer consideration of proposals for major changes until after that time. Meanwhile, it agrees to liaison with other Ada related activities for the purpose of identifying potential improvements to the language. In order to provide a mechanism whereby it could review all incoming comments in a consistent manner, WG9 established a Language Maintenance Committee: (Resolution 6, Brussels) ISO/TC 97/SC 5/WG l4 agrees that there should be a single Ada Language Maintenance Committee, which shall serve and coordinate the interests of international and domestic standards maintenance. The committee shall accept comments from all sources and provide technical input to the maintenance of the Ada programming language. WG l4 instructs its convenor to coordinate the establishment of such a committee. Comments resolved in this Committee pass to the WG 9. On November 8, 1985, Ms. Virginia L. Castor, newly appointed Director of the AJPO, was unanimously elected the Convenor of WG9 by the member bodies of SC22 at the first SC22 Plenary in Paris. At the February 24, 1986 meeting in Los Angeles (Meeting No.7), WG 9 passed the following resolution concerning language commentaries: WG 9 reaffirms its desire to meet with the Ada Board to jointly discuss language issues to the largest extent possible and requests its Convenor to formally communicate this to the Chairperson of the Ada Board. Also during this meeting, WG 9 passed the following resolution regarding Ada math libraries: WG 9 resolves to establish a subgroup to investigate math libraries in Ada. *Ada is a registered trademark of the U.S. Government (Ada Joint Program Office)