ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG8 N1349
Title: Meeting Report of SGML SWG, Lugano
Source: C. F. Goldfarb
Project: 1.18.15.1
Project editor: C. F. Goldfarb
Status of document: Approved report
Requested action: For information
Date: 11 Oct 1991
Distribution: WG8 and liaisons
As announced in WG8 N1269, an SGML SWG was held May 23, 24, 27, and
28, 1991 in Lugano, Switzerland. All agenda items were covered.
This document summarizes the discussion at the meeting. The current
document register and action items list are attached as annexes, along
with the attendance list for the meeting.
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WG8 N1289 Future development of ISO 8879 was discussed. There was
agreement on the principles of upward compatibility expressed in WG8
N1289 and in the Liaison statement from the SGML Users' Group (SWG N1),
followed by clarification that JTC1 procedures do not require
a New Work Item for a review project.
The purpose of this meeting was to establish policy and procedures for
reviewing ISO 8879, rather than to initiate that review. The review
is expected to result in future development of ISO 8879, but until it
is completed, it is not clear whether the most appropriate vehicle for
progressing any changes is corrigenda, an amendment, or a revised
edition of the Standard. A revised edition would initially be
published as a CD with a three-month ballot and progress to a DIS with
a six-month ballot. An amendment would first be distributed as a PDAM
(proposed draft amendment) for a three-month ballot and then a DAM
(draft amendment) for a six-month ballot. Corrigenda require only a
three-month ballot. A non-normative summary of any major changes may
also be prepared.
The agreed upon policy and procedures are contained in WG8 N1350,
N1351, and this report.
**************************************************************************
Lynne Price and Dave Peterson agreed to assist the project editor
during the review process by serving as co-editors of the Journal
of Development. They will
- Maintain a Journal of Development which will record dates when
issues were discussed, decisions made by the working group, and the
motivation for the decisions.
- Maintain a database of comments that have been received on the Standard.
- Record disposition of comments and draft responses to the commenters
when required by JTC1 procedures
- Edit textual contributions for consistent style
- Prepare minutes of SWG meetings
Lynne has also agreed to be Contribution Coordinator and will maintain
the following documents:
- Document register
- Action item list
- Attendance list
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Any proposed changes to the standard resulting from the review process
will be written for an audience consisting primarily of
software developers, software testers, and members of standards
committees. The presentation will be self-contained so that it will
be readable by people who have not attended SWG meetings and have no
other documentation.
This approach is being taken because
prior to 1986, when the SGML standard was originally published, there
was no infrastructure of SGML expertise. The standard was the primary
means for explaining the spirit and the details of the SGML language
to all the following groups:
- Management of organizations using and producing structured documents
- DTD designers
- Users of document instances
- Members of standards committees
- Software developers
- Software testers
Since 1986, knowledge of SGML has spread widely. There is an
extensive technical report on Techniques for Using SGML. Several books
and journal articles about the language have been published. Several
organizations offer classes on SGML. There is a growing corpus of
SGML software available commercially, within certain organizations,
and in the public domain. SGML end users and their managers can now
learn about SGML in a less formal way than by studying the standard.
**************************************************************************
A document register for the SGML SWG was established. Many of these
documents are not expected to be of interest to a broader audience
than the SWG. Therefore, minutes of SWG meetings, the SWG document
register as it stands after each SWG meeting, and selected other
documents will be sent to WG8. Other documents will be made available
upon request.
**************************************************************************
The database will be designed to provide the following information for
each entry:
1. An entry number.
2. The text of the comment, including identification of the submitter.
This information may have the form of
a) a pointer to a hard-copy document
b) a machine-readable document included in full in the database
or c) a pointer to a file containing a machine-readable document
3. Identication of the relevant portion of ISO 8879, consisting of:
a) Clause, paragraph, and sentence number
b) Production number if relevant
and c) Page and line in the SGML Handbook
4. Abstract or summary of comment (head note).
5. Identification of relevant Journal of Development entries.
6. Disposition of the comment including
a) Whether the disposition is the editor's recommendation or the final
disposition
b) Whether the comment is
- accepted
- accepted with modification
- rejected
- returned to submitter with request for additional information
- moot (with a citation to the comment and disposition that
made it moot)
or - duplicate (with a citation to the comment it duplicates)
c) Whether this disposition is motivated by a technical cause,
ISO policy, or other reason
and d) Any appropriate discussion or commentary
7. Identification of related database entries.
8. Correspondence control.
a) Whether ISO requires a response
b) WG8 document number of any response sent
and c) Person responsible for an undistributed response
11. The person responsible for proposing any text resulting from the comment.
12. Categorization of the comment as proposing
a) A correction of SGML language, classified as resolution of an
- ambiguity
or - inconsistency
b) New material, classified as a
- modification of an existing function
or - new function
or c) An editorial change, classified as whether it
- has local impact
- has dispersed impact
- requires some restructuring of existing text
- corrects typographical errors
13. An indication of the size of the proposed change (a rough
classification that may be merely "big" or "little", or may perhaps be
an integer from 1 to 5).
14. An effort estimate of the amount of work by the SWG needed to
address the problem, divided into group meeting time and individual
research/writing time.
Items 1) and 3) will be the major keys into the database. Multiple
comments on the same topic will have different entries, as will
multiple comments from a single communication. The practicality of
scanning hard-copy submissions into machine-readable form will be
investigated.
**************************************************************************
Comments that the project editor has already received will be entered
into the database as well additional comments that arrive during the
review process. In particular, the comments in WG8 N1035 will be
treated as accepted comments (subject to the same reconsideration on
request that would be made for any other accepted comments).
As some older comments may no longer be timely or in
the spirit of WG8 N1289, submitters who are still active in the SGML
community may wish to revise and resubmit such material.
The SWG requests that WG8 solicit comments on ISO 8879 from member
bodies and liaisons. SGML SWG N4 contains a draft of this request.
**************************************************************************
Several attendees presented papers with comments on ISO 8879. These
comments were discussed to the point of understanding the issues
raised without resolving them. All papers were entered into the SWG
document register:
N2. Suggestions for possible extensions to ISO 8879, Martin Bryan, 5/91
N3. Requirements for Standardizing the SGML Parsed Outputs, Y. Komachi
and Y. Tanaka, 5/91
N5. Suggestions for possible extensions to ISO 8879, Pierre Richard, 5/91.
Aidan Killian also reviewed WG8 N1166. In SWG N6, the SWG asks WG8 to
request additional information from the Irish Member Body.
**************************************************************************
Other standards activity related to SGML was discussed:
Lynne Price requested comments on the draft ANSI standard on SGML
conformance testing.
David Abrahamson discussed requirements for SGML-B as presented in WG8
N1103. It was agreed that the SGML SWG needs to review SGML in
parallel with the development of SGML-B.
Charles Goldfarb presented some issues from the HyTime standard.
**************************************************************************
DOCUMENT REGISTER
1. SGML Users' Group Liaison Statement, 26 April 91.
2. Suggestions for possible extensions to ISO 8879, Martin Bryan, 5/91
3. Requirements for Standardizing the SGML Parsed Outputs, Y. Komachi
and Y. Tanaka, 5/91
4. Draft letter from WG8 to member bodies and liaisons informing them
that SGML review is active, 5/91.
5. Suggestions for possible extensions to ISO 8879:1986, Pierre
Richard, 5/91.
6. Draft request to the Irish Member Body for additional information
on WG8 N1166.
7. WG8 N1103 User requirements for SGML-B (Supersedes WG8 N1012)
8. WG8 N1289 Future development of ISO 8879
9. WG8 N1269 SWG on Review of ISO 8879: Meeting notice and agenda -
May 1991
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ACTION ITEMS
1. Check that there is a work item covering review of ISO 8879.
Status: Done during SWG 5/91. SGML is an existing project and does
not need a NWI.
2. Build initial database of comments on ISO 8879 from minutes of SGML
SWG in San Jose (8/79)
Assigned to: Lynne Price, Dave Peterson
Due: Initial effort for WG8 meeting 8/91, if possible. More complete
results for next SGML SWG (early 1992)
3. Design a DTD for accepting machine-readable comments
Assigned to: Lynne Price, Dave Peterson
Due: Initial effort for WG8 meeting 8/91, if possible. More complete
results for next SGML SWG (early 1992)
4. Prepare a statement describing the methodology for reviewing ISO
8879 that was decided upon during the 5/91 SWG.
Assigned to: Charles Goldfarb, Lynne Price, Dave Peterson
Due: 10/91
5. Prepare a description of a language that might be used as a data
content notation for attributes and content.
Assigned to: Martin Bryan
Due: 10/91
6. Revise WG8 N1166 (except discussion of character sets) in light of
the principles governing future development of ISO 8879 expressed in WG8
N1289.
Assigned to: Aidan Killian
7. Propose an enhancement of ISO 8879 regarding multi-page character sets.
Assigned to: Aidan Killian
8. Prepare a draft proposal for SGML-B.
Assigned to: David Abrahamson
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ATTENDANCE LIST
David M. Abrahamson
Department of Computer Science
Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
+353 1 772941 ext 1716
Fax +353 1 772204
DAVID@CS.TCD.IE
Sharon C. Adler
IBM
Publishing Solutions
6330 Spine Rd.
Dept GPA/910-M
Boulder, CO 80301-9191
USA
+1 303 924 0473
Fax +1 303 924 0366
Anders Berglund
ISO
1, Rue de Varembe
CH-1211 Geneve 20
Switzerland
+41 22 749 01 11
Direct +41 22 749 03 33
Fax +41 22 733 34 30
Telex 41 22 05 ISO CH
Martin Bryan
Sema Software Technology
29 Oldbury Orchard
Churchdown, Glos GL3 2PU
UK
+44 452 714029
Fax +44 249 655723
William W. Davis, Jr.
Teleprint Corp.
P.O. Box 22004
Alexandria, VA 22304
USA
+1 703 370 5550
Fax + 1 703 370 5551
Paul A. Ellison
University of Exeter Computer Unit
Lauer Building
North Park Rd.
Exeter, UK EX4 4QE
Phone: +44 392 263951
Fax: +44 392 211630
Ellison@uk.ac.exeter
Charles F. Goldfarb
IBM Almaden Research Center
K83/801
650 Harry Road
San Jose, CA 95120
USA
+1 408 927 2630
Fax 408 927 3040
GML@IBM.COM
Paul Grosso
ArborText, Inc.
349 Daly Ave.
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6G8
Canada
+1 613 233 2535
Fax +613 562 1083
pbg@arbortext.com
Aidan Killian
Digital Equipment International B.V.
Mervue Industrial Estate
Mervue, Galway, Ireland
+353 (91) 51271 X2545
Fax +353 (91) 53946
killian@galvia@dec.com
Yushi Komachi
Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems, Inc.
2-3-8 Shimo-meguro, Meguro-ku
Tokyo 153
Japan
+81 3 3491 9191
Fax +81 3 3495 4620
Brent Nordin
ZIFTech Computer System Inc.
120 Herchmer Cr.
Kingston, Ontario K7M 2V9
Canada
+1 613 549 2135
NORDIN@QUCIS.QUEENSU.CA
Dave Peterson
Xyvision Inc
101 Edgewater Dr.
Wakefield, MA 01880
USA
+1 617 224 5249
Fax +1 617 245 2428
xyui!davep@uunet.uu.net
Lynne A. Price
Frame Technology Corp.
1010 Rincon Circle
San Jose, CA 95131
USA
+1 408 433 3311
Direct +1 408 428 6116
Fax +1 408 433 1928
lprice@frame.com
Pierre G. Richard
IBM-France
95, rue de la Galera
34090 Montpellier
France
+33 67 61 42 89
Rudolf M. Riess
Digital Equipment Corp.
146 Main Street ML23-2/E51
Maynard, MA 01754
+1 508 493 5998
Fax +1 508 493 3247
Brian Travis
Teleprint Technical Services
102 Inverness Terrace E.
Englewood, CO 80112
USA
+1 303 792 3100
Fax 303 792 3757
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