Subject:        WG15 N461 (Guide for POSIX National Profile and National Locale) -
                     Potential Relationship to ISO/IEC PDTR 14252.  (P1003.0)

Reference:    WG15 Action Items 9405-09, 9305-52, 9310-20

Considerations:

1. Overall Scope

With respect to WG15 N461, Section 1: Scope, our comments are divided to address the two major parts.

National Profiles:

Effectively National Profiles address the full OSE and substantially overlaps the program of work of the Regional Workshops (EWOS/OIW/AOW).  The relationship of teh proposed technical  report to TR 10000 isn't clear.

The Japanese contribution WG15 N470 states that National Profiles as described in WG15 N461 should be defined as National or Regional Standards and Profiles and not at the International level.

A fundamental principle in PDTR 14252 is that the profiling process must be flexible enough to allow for a wide variety of profiles, each tailored to a specific set of user requirements.  The concept of a single profile applicable across an entire nation is contrary to this principle.

Another fundamental principle in PDTR 14252 is that profile creation begins with a statement of User Functional requirements, which then drives the selection of base standards.  This leads to the creation  of Functionally oriented profiles rather than Nationally oriented profiles.

National Locales:

ISO/IEC PDTR 14252, Section 5.1 supports the concept and development of National Locales within the broader concept of Internationalization.

The many-to-many relationships between cultures and nations is very complex and it is not clear as to how locale development should eb coordinated and harmonized.

The term "National Profile" is easily misunderstood and/or misinterpreted (ref. SGFS N1180).

The PDTR (N461) is intended to provide guidelines and direction for the development of culturally specific functionality.  The current document does not provide sufficient detail to accomplish this purpose.

1. PDTR 14252 does not support the concept of National Profiles, but does provide a strong support for the concept of National Locales.  Potentially PDTR 14252 could reference N461 if it were to progress to a TR.
   
   
2. Section 5.1 of PDTR 14252 discusses the POSIX OSE and internationalization.  Potentially material from N461, on internationalization, could be included in a  future revision of this section or in a related Annex.
   
   
3. WG15 RGCPA suggests that NP387 be modified to limit the focus to the Guidelines for the Development of National Locales.