Subject: WG11/N372 - Minutes of WG11 meeting, July 1993

From: Willem Wakker <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 93 12:35:16 N

DRAFT MINUTES OF MEETING		      SC22/WG11/N372

Committee:   ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG11

Place:	     ACE Associated Computer Experts bv
	     Amsterdam, Netherlands

Date:	     July 19 - 23, 1993

Attendees:   Mr. Ed Barkmeyer	    NIST, USA
	     Mr. Peter Farkas	    Sun, USA
	     Mr. Brian Meek	    King's College London, UK
	     Mr. Craig Schaffert    DEC, USA
	     Mr. Keld Simonsen	    Denmark
	     Mr. Willem Wakker	    ACE, Netherlands
	     Mr. Johan van Wingen   Netherlands

1.  Agenda (WG11/N349)

The agenda was adopted.

It was agreed that the order of business in the draft agenda would not be
followed, but each item would be discussed at the most suitable time,
considering the fact that Mr. Van Wingen could only attend on Tuesday, and
Mr. Simonsen only on Thursday.

2.  Minutes of Previous Meeting (WG11/N363)

The name of Mr. Farkas was added to the list of attendees; the minutes were
approved as amended.

3.  Convenor Report

The main point of concern to report was the continuing small participation
in WG11.  This will be mentioned in the Convenors report to SC22.

4.  National Activity Reports

4.1  BSI IST/5/11, Report by Brian Meek

The UK panel has met once since the Boston WG11 meeting, principally to
consider comments on LID that need to be resolved at this WG11 meeting.
The only one that is foreseen to be difficult to resolve satisfactorily for
the UK is the US major comment 1a.  The revised US draft has arrived just
in time to be briefly reviewed.  It seems that this does not quite meet the
UK requirements as far as "goals" are concerned but it was felt that this
could be readily fixed, and Jon Diamond (convenor) had provided a
contribution subsequently.

At SC22 level the parent committee had agreed that it was not necessary to
change the LIA definition to be based on significant in order to meet the
UK request to match LIA with IEEE 754, if this causes serious problems in
other directions, such as language bindings.

Regrettably we shall be without John Dawes' assistance for six months for
health reasons.  We look forward to him resuming his participation in the
next year.

4.2  ANSI X3T2, Report by Craig Schaffert

X3T2 did not meet between this WG11 meeting and the previous one, so no
report.

5.  Work Item 22.14 - Language Bindings Guidelines

The document has been forwarded to the SC22 secretariat for publication by
ITTF.

Milestones for the Language Bindings Guidelines project:

5.3   93-06   TR published

6.  Work Item 22.16 - Language Independent Procedure Calling

Based on the resolution of ballot comments, agreed at the last WG11
meeting, the project editor had produced a new version: LIPC WD#6.1
(WG11/N366).  However, the edits were not yet complete.  A first draft of
the response document (WG11/N367) was also available; this document
identifies the places were additional editors instructions are necessary.

During the meeting, the additional editors instructions were drafted.  It
was decided that N366 and N367, together with these additional instructions
will be circulated to WG11 for review and comment.  Comments should be
received by the convenor by October 15th, 1993 at the latest.  After that
date the editor will produce the document to be registered as CD.

Milestones for the LIPC project:

2.8   93-10   WD approved for registration as CD

7.  Work Item 22.17 - Language-Independent Data Types

The ballot comments on the second CD (SC22/N1354, WG11/N361) showed 8
countries supporting the document without comments (Brazil, China, Denmark,
Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands and Romania), 2 countries supporting
the document with comments (New Zealand and UK), 2 countries abstaining
(Bulgaria and Germany) and 2 countries disapproving the document (Sweden
and the USA).

All comments were discussed, and after a long (and sometimes heated)
discussion, agreement was reached on text, based on which the US was
willing to reverse its NO vote.

The NO vote from Sweden could be changed to a YES vote when the SC2
standards were followed in the definition of character names.  Text too
this effect was agreed, so it is the firm believe of WG11 that everything
has been done to overcome the NO votes.

The editor will produce a new version of the document (at the latest by
October 15th) which will then be registered as DIS.

Milestones for the LID project:

2.8   91-01   WD approved for registration as CD
3.0   91-05   CD registered
3.1   91-05   CD study initiated
3.8   93-10   CD approved for registration as DIS

8.  Work Item 22.28 - Language-Independent Arithmetic, Part 1: Integer and
    Floating Point Arithmetic

A temporary version of the updated document was available during the
meeting.  After some discussion it was agreed that only the Foreword needed
some additional editorial changes.

The editor will produce the final DIS text before mid August 1993.

Milestones for the LIA Part 1 project:

3.8   93-04   CD approved for registration as DIS

9.  Work Item 22.33 - Language-Independent Arithmetic, Part 2: Language
    Independent Mathematical Procedure Standard

No progress made.  The milestones remain unchanged.

Milestones for the LIA Part 2 project:

2.1   91-09   WD study initiated
      93-10   First draft circulated
2.8   94-08   WD draft for CD registration

10.  Work Item 22.34 - Language-Independent Arithmetic, Part 3: Language
     Independent Complex Arithmetic and Procedure Standard

No progress made.  The milestones remain unchanged.

Milestones for the LIA Part 3 project:

2.1   91-09   WD study initiated
      94-11   First draft circulated
2.8   95-04   WD draft for CD registration

11.  Cross language issues

11.1  POSIX

The NWI proposal, titled `Guidelines for the Preparation of Language
Independent Service Specifications', is in ballot in SC22 (SC22/N1376,
closing date 1993/08/31).

Some issues around the documentation structure of LI Specifications and
language bindings were discussed.  It was recognized that when a LI Service
Specification is based on LID and LIPC, and when `generic' language
bindings from a language to LID and LIPC exist, there possibly a need exist
for `very thin' language bindings to that service (example: the very thin
POSIX bindings, WG11/N368).  However, at this moment neither the POSIX LIS
specification, nor the corresponding C binding are written in this fashion.

11.2  PCTE

There was nothing to report on PCTE.

11.3  IRDS

There was nothing to report on IRDS.

12.  Planning and Future Meetings

The next meeting is scheduled to be in London on March 21-25 1994, hosted
by BSI.  It is hoped that by then most of the WG11 documents have finished
their ballots.

13.  Close of Meeting

The host, ACE, and especially Mrs. Gisela Plat from ACE, were thanked for
organizing the meeting and offering dinner to WG11.

Mr. Ed Barkmeyer was thanked for his contribution to the work of WG11, and
especially for his effort in the difficult task of producing the first
drafts of the LID document.  It is hoped that he can continue to contribute
in an `off-line' fashion (i.e. through email).

Documents identified since last mailing

  _______________________________________________________________________
  WG11	 Other	 Date	  Author      Title
  Nbrs   Nbrs
  _______________________________________________________________________
  364		 9306xx 	      CD 10967-1.2
  365		 9306xx 	      Responses to comments on CD 10967-1
				      (WG11/N355)
  366		 9307xx   Edwards     LIPC WD#7
  367		 9307xx   Edwards     Responses to comments on LIPC
				      (WG11/N357)
  368	 WG15/	 930511   Simonsen    Thin C binding for POSIX 9945-1
	 N376
  369		 93xxxx 	      A Proposal for Accurate Floating-
				      Point Arithmetic
  370			  Barkmeyer   LID WD#8
  371			  Barkmeyer   Responses to comments on LID (N361)
  372		 9308xx   Convener    Minutes WG11 Meeting July 1993
  _______________________________________________________________________