JTC1/SC22/WG14 N838

			
			Business Plan and Convener's Report
		ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14 (The Programming Language C)

                                 Document: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14 N838


PERIOD COVERED:
June 1997 - May 1998

SUBMTTED BY:
Convener, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14
John Benito
Perennial, Inc.
3004 Mission Street #130
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone: +1 408 748 2900
Fax:     +1 408 457 3916
Email:   jb@peren.com


1. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

   1.1. JTC1/SC22/WG14 STATEMENT OF SCOPE
        Development and maintenance of ISO/IEC Standards related 
        to the programming language C.

   1.2. PROJECT REPORT
        1.2.1. COMPLETED PROJECTS
               None over this period.

        1.2.2. PROJECTS UNDERWAY
               JTC1.22.20.01 - Programming Language C (Revision of 
               ISO/IEC 9899:1990)

               JTC1/SC22 N2620 was submitted to SC22 for CD ballot 
               on December 24, 1997, this ballot closed April 07, 
               1998.  The summary of voting and comments can be 
               found in JTC 1/SC22 N2690.

        1.2.3. CANCELLED PROJECTS
               None over this period.

        1.2.4. COOPERATION and COMPETITION
               Where appropriate, WG14 has established active liaisons 
               with other SC22 working groups.  There is no apparent 
               direct competition with any other current SC22 working 
               group.

2. PEROID REVIEW

   2.1. MARKET REQUIREMENTS
        WG14 feels that it is responding to user community pressure 
        and to implementers concerns to revise the ISO/IEC 9899 
        standard to keep current with today's programming trends 
        and market.  The Committee believes that evolution of Object 
        Oriented programming, numerical extensions that were proposed 
        by J11.1, internationalization, advancements in character set 
        standardization, cross-language standards and cross-language 
        bindings all need to be considered in the revised standard.  
        Most of these issues where not considered during the technical 
        discussions for the current ISO C Standard.    Please, see 
        document ISO/IEC JCT 1/SC22 N2265 "Charter for the Revision 
        of the C Standard" for more details.

   2.2. ACHIEVEMENTS
        WG14 produced the N2620 for CD Ballot.  WG14 also worked on Defect 
        Reports, keeping the Defect Report Log current.

   2.3. RESOURCES
        WG14 meets three times per year in co-located technical sessions 
        with the US committee J11.  Ten countries participate by attending 
        these meetings or by being involved  in the technical discussions 
        that take place over the reflector.  The countries are: Australia, 
        Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, UK, 
        and the USA.

        WG14 has been monitoring the cross-language standards activities, 
        and are using the ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG20 guidelines on extended 
        characters.  WG14 has also keep apprised of the requirements of 
        the LIA-1,2 standards. 

        WG14 liaison appointments are:

        Group	Name					Person assigned

        WG11	Language Independent Datatypes		Keld Simonsen
        WG15	Posix 					Keld Simonsen
        WG20	Internationalization			Keld Simonsen
        WG21	C++					John Benito

3. FOCUS NEXT WORK PERIOD
   During the next work period, WG14 will focus on moving the project 
   through the final CD Ballot.  Resolving all Public comments, reaching 
   the DIS stage of the project.

   3.1. DELIVERABLES
        WG14 anticipates that the Final CD 9899 will be approved, moving 
        to the next stage in the standards process.

   3.2. STRATEGIES
        WG14 believes that routine handling will suffice to complete the 
        progress desired.

   3.3. RISKS
        No problems are anticipated.

   3.4. OPPORTUNITIES
        None.

   3.5. WORK PROGRAM PRIORITIES
        WG14 will concentrate on the revision of 9899, however WG14 will 
        still respond to Defect Report logged for the current ISO/IEC 
        9899:1990 Standard.

4. OTHER ITEMS

   4.1. POSSIBLE ACTION REQUESTS AT FORTHCOMING PLENARY
        None currently.

   4.2. WG14 SUPPORTS SC22 N2718
        WG14 supports the action requested in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22 N2718.

   4.3. PROJECT EDITORS
        The following individuals have been appointed project editors 
        and backup project editors:

        JTC1.22.20.01 Programming Language C (Revision of ISO/IEC 9899:1990)
        Larry Jones (Project Editor), Douglas Walls (Backup Project Editor)

   4.4. ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION
        WG14 has conducted much of its detailed technical discussion using 
        email reflector provided by the Danish UNIX Users Group and Keld 
        Simonsen.

        WG14 also has an ftp and Web site provided by courtesy of the Danish 
        UNIX Users Group and Keld Simonsen.

        WG14 is now providing all the appropriate committee documents on 
        the Committee Web site, reducing the need for paper mailings.

   4.5. RECENT MEETINGS
        23-27   Jun 97   London, UK             BSI, Plum Hall Europe
        20-24   Oct 97   Menlo Park, CA USA     ANSI, Sun Microsystems
        02-06   Feb 98   Frisco, CO USA         ANSI Keaton Consulting

   4.6. FUTURE MEETINGS
        23-27   Jun 98   Copenhagen, Denmark    Danish Standards
        05-09   Oct 98   Santa Cruz, CA USA     ANSI, SGI/Cray
        01-05   Feb 99   Portland, OR USA       ANSI, Intel Corp.