From baker@ada.cs.fsu.edu Fri Aug 26 12:51:25 1994 Received: from ada.cs.fsu.edu by dkuug.dk with SMTP id AA21121 (5.65c8/IDA-1.4.4j for ); Fri, 26 Aug 1994 22:54:17 +0200 Received: by ada.cs.fsu.edu (5.65/56) id AA05054; Fri, 26 Aug 94 16:51:25 -0400 Date: Fri, 26 Aug 94 16:51:25 -0400 From: Ted Baker Message-Id: <9408262051.AA05054@ada.cs.fsu.edu> To: isaak@csac.ljo.dec.com, sc22wg15@dkuug.dk Subject: Re: (wg15tag 763) (SC22WG15.392) Ada POSIX fastrack in progress X-Charset: ASCII X-Char-Esc: 29 In my role as liason between WG15 and WG9, I provide the following answers to some obvious questions regarding the "fast track" ballot on ISO/IEC DIS 14519-1. 1. Why has it taken so long to come to ballot? This is the POSIX.1 Ada binding, an IEEE standard since 1992. It was submitted by the USA to the ISO JTC1 secretariat a long time ago (more than a year, as I recall). As time passed and nothing was hear from JTC1, some people wondered what had happened. It turns out the document was "lost". John Hill found that there was a record of the document being mailed, but no indication that the JTC1 secretariat apparently never received it. When John discovered this, he arranged for the document to be re-sent, and the result is the current ballot. 2. What is the relationship to the new Ada language standard, known as Ada 9X or ISO/IEC DIS 8652: 1994? ISO/IEC DIS 14519-1 (IEEE STD 1003.5-1992) is upward-compatible with Ada 9X. P1003.5b, is in IEEE ballot and will be submitted soon for CD registration. It is an amendment to IEEE STD 1003.5-1992, that provides interface for the 1003.1b (Realtime) and 1003.1c (Threads) extensions. P1003.5b also updates the normative reference for the Ada language to ISO/IEC DIS 8652: 1994. It preserves the P1003.5b interfaces, and makes only very limited use of new language features. The intent is to protect existing applications that use the P1003.5 interface, and provide a smooth transition path to for POSIX/Ada implementors and users. The latter must take into account the transition path proposed by the Ada 9X compiler validation office, which allows implementors to add Ada 9X functionality gradually, over a period of several years. If there are any other questions, please forward them to me and I will attempt to provide answers. --Ted Baker