ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG15 (Posix) Meeting, Twente, Netherlands
				8-12 May 1995

				Meeting Report



	1. Introduction:

	Eight member bodies were represented at the fifteenth meeting of
	WG15 in Twente, they were: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany,
	Japan, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA.  Seventeen delegates
	attended all or part of the meeting.

	The meeting agenda included forty-six action items together
	with forty-eight papers for consideration.

	The Plenary was followed on the 11th and 12th of May by meetings
	of WG15's Rapporteur Groups on:

	    . Internationalisation
	    . Conformance Testing
	    . Profiling Activities


	2. WG15 Plenary
	2.1 WG15 Work Items:

	Three WG15 work items
	    22.21.01.01, (Language Independent Specification [LIS]
			  System Interface)
	    22.21.01.03.01 (Transparent File Access [TFA])
	and 22.21.01.03.03 (Protocol Independent Interface [PII]) are
	approaching the end of their three-year window for producing a
	draft.

	The last two items are expected to produce working drafts for
	consideration in October 1995.

	The first item, however, was the subject of some debate - both
	SC22 and WG15 are committed to the worth of language-independent
	standards but in the case of Posix the LIS is retro-fitted on to
	a well-established 'C'-language firmament.  Apart from Ada there
	is little liklihood of other language bindings to the whole of
	the Posix range of standards and LIS is seen by many individuals
	as an expensive overhead.  In 1993 WG15 resolved to revisit the
	LIS debate when WG11 (Language Bindings) had produced its work.
	WG15 resolved to retain LIS as a work item, (Denmark offering to
	progress the work with some available resources for the
	remainder of the year) and progress it as best it could while
	awaiting WG11's output.

	A fourth work item,
	    22.21.01.03.04 'Directory Services', has a generic version
	which is currently being fast-tracked within SC21.  WG15
	resolved to request that its own work item be withdrawn.

	The 22.38 work item, TR 14252 'Guide to POSIX OSE' passed its
	PDTR ballot in October 1994, and the disposition of comments has
	been approved.	SC22 will shortly receive the revised text of
	the draft for DTR ballot.


	2.2 UK Concerns:

	The UK delegation noted some problems with 1003.2b Draft 10, the
	working draft on internationalisation extensions and additional
	utilities to the 9945-2:1993 Shell and Utilities standard.  A
	number of sections are flagged as awaiting input from Denmark
	and Japan, and this appears to have been so for some time.  WG15
	actioned Denmark and Japan to identify or provide the required
	input prior to 1-July, in order that the development group would
	be able to consider it at its next meeting.  The next WG15
	meeting will be scheduled to allow a detailed discussion of the
	proposed revisions to the Draft.


	2.3 Applications Conformance:

	This issue was first raised at the October 1994 meeting of WG15,
	and was reopened here as the wider debate around a letter from
	the CCTA to WG15's Convener, which regretted the lack of Posix-
	conformant applications and questioned the direction of Posix.

	After a lengthy debate WG15's Convener was actioned to confer
	with both X/Open and the IEEE PASC Chair with the aim of
	producing a response to the CCTA, confirming the co-operative
	nature and inter-dependence of the three organisations on each
	other's work.  The goal is to provide a platform for applications
	portability, and while users are successfully demanding
	Posix-compliant systems they must also require Posix-compliant
	applications.  At the same time WG15 approved the establishment
	of closer official links to X/Open through a category 'C' liaison
	with that organisation.


	3. UK Delegation:

	The UK delegation consisted of:
		David Cannon	UK BSI IST/5/-/15 Convenor
		Martin Kirk
		Don Folland


	David Cannon
	13-May-1995