P333
	    ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG15 (POSIX) Meeting, Munich, Germany
			      28-31 October 1996

				Meeting Report



	1. Introduction:

	Fourteen representatives of seven member bodies attended the
	seventeenth meeting of WG15 in Copenhagen, from:  Canada, Denmark,
	Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA.

	The meeting agenda included seventy-eight action items from WG15's
	previous meeting, plus twenty-four input papers.



	2. WG15 Plenary
	The raft of POSIX work items passing through ISO continues;  a
	number of items have recently completed the voting element of a
	cycle and await WG15 Disposition of Comments - these will require
	action by the appropriate Project Editor.


	2.1 Currently Active WG15 Work Items:
	  9945-2 Shell & Utilities
	  Work Item 22.41:  Additional Utilities
	The Disposition of Comments is outstanding this document.
	The WG15 Convener was actioned to advise the Project Editor that
	these need to be produced ASAP.

	  Work Item 22.43:  Security Amendments
	The Disposition of Comments is also required on this item.  The
	Convener was actioned to ensure that this takes place as soon as
	possible.

	  Work Item 22.21.03.02:  Batch Services
	In a series of administrative errors the document that was
	balloted under this work item was the incorrect document; the US
	was actioned to ensure that the correct document be sent to SC22
	for circulation.

	  15068:  Administered Systems
	  Work Item 22.21.03.01:  System Administration Overview (1387.1)
	1387.1 is currently a dormant project in the IEEE.

	  Work Item 22.21.03.04:  Software Administration (1387.2)
	The text of the finaI IEEE standard has been forwarded to ITTF
	to be registered as a DIS.

	  Work Item 22.21.03.05:  User Administration (1387.3)
	This draft has completed its final IEEE ballot and will be
	forwarded to ITTF for ISO DIS ballot after the IEEE has done
	the final editorial work.

	  Work Item 22.21.03.03:  Print Administration (1387.4)
	The latest draft is still in ballot resolution in IEEE.
	Recirculation should occur early in 1997.  CD registration in ISO
	is scheduled to complete in December.  The ISO CD ballot should
	not be targeted for that same draft since IEEE and ISO work would
	then be out of synchronisation.

	  9945-1 C Language Bindings
	  Work Item 22.39:  Extensions to Base (1003.1a)
	The ISO PDAM registration ballot finishes in December.	The draft
	has not yet passed its IEEE Ballot, but balloting will start soon
	on a much later draft.	The draft that should be used for ISO
	PDAM ballot should be Draft 13 or later.

	The US is currently reviewing it's procedures to take account of
	the new JTC1 and SC22 procedures.  WG15 has revised its
	synchronisation plan to ensure that the documents which have been
	sent for ISO PDAM registration are earlier versions of those
	which will be used for PDAM Ballot.

	  Work Item 22.21.40:  Extensions to real time (1003.1d)
	Same status as 1003.1a.  (See above)

	  Work Item 22.42:  Security Amendment (1003.1e)
	The ISO PDAM ballot has completed and it is waiting Disposition
	of Comments.  If this work slips past April then WG15 might be
	forced to do a Final PDAM Ballot (according to the latest JTC1
	Regulations, otherwise it could go for ISO DAM ballot.

	  Work Item 22.21.01.03.01:  Transparent File Access (1003.1f)
	Member bodies have been requested to look at the market relevance
	of this project, (SC22 N2212).	The work is stalled in the IEEE
	process due to too many abstentions in the last voting round.  If
	the document is deemed to be still relevant and WG15 members
	believe that it should be moved forward, then WG15 will forward
	the latest draft for PDAM registration, irrespective of its
	status in the IEEE.

	  Work Item 22.21.01.03.03:  Protocol Independent Interfaces (1003.1g)
	The document is currently in ISO PDAM ballot closing in 2-Dec-96.
	The UK will be voting NO on the ballot for this document.  (See
	below).  The Netherlands will also vote NO since the document
	circulated was not complete (just a series of annotated edits to
	a previous draft).  WG15 resolved that the Disposition of Comments
	meeting be held at the earliest possible moment after the closure
	of ballot, in order to expedite the production of a suitable
	document for future consideration.

	  Work Item:  Advanced Real Time Extensions (1003.1j)
	Draft 5 of this document was in IEEE Ballot but only got 38%
	approval.  It is recommended that Draft 5 be sent for PDAM
	registration only (this is in accordance with the Synchronization
	plan).

	  Work Item  14519:  Ada Language Bindings
	No discussion.	This is (still) scheduled for Fast-Track in ISO.

	  Work Item  14252:  Guide to POSIX OSE
	The UK nominated Don Folland as Project Editor for this document.

	13210, 14515-x Test Methods
	  Work Item  22.37:  CD13219 Test Methods (2003R)
	A 'Final CD' would apply in this case.	The US expects a final
	IEEE recirculation to happen fairly soon;  WG15 could expect the
	Final CD Ballot to be initiated before its next meeting.

	  Work Item  14515-1:  Test Methods for 9945-1-1990
	Completed.

	  Work Item:  Test Methods for 1990 component (2003.1)
	Completed.

	  Work Item:  Test Methods for Real Time Extensions (2003.1b)
	ISO PDAM registration is in process on Draft 5 and is closing in
	December.  The PDAM ballot will take place on a subsequent draft.

	  Work Item 14515-2:  Test Methods for 9945-2 (2003.2)
	The approved IEEE standard (2003.2-1996) will be forwarded as the
	appropriate document for ISO DIS ballot.

	  Work Item 5.8:  Guide for National Profiles & Locales (14766)
	The IEEE PAR has not yet been submitted.  WG15 noted that it has
	to be received by the IEEE office by 1-Nov-96 in order to get
	into the next IEEE Standards Board meeting, and encouraged those
	IEEE officers present to attempt this by all available means.



	2.2 UK Concerns:

	Protocol Independent Interface		PDAM ballot:

	The UK will be voting NO to this ballot, raising the problem
	detailed in WG15 N696.	The Netherlands has a separate problem, in
	that it believes that the circulated document is incomplete,
	containing just changes to a previous draft.  The WG15 Convener
	suggested that the UK proposal could be applied in the IEEE
	working group and the complete, fixed document be recirculated in
	an extended ISO ballot, to resolve the Netherlands problem.
	The UK undertook (via its contacts with the IEEE Technical
	Editor) to provide the full document for WG15 circulation during
	the WG15 meeting.  The WG15 Convener 'blessed' the document as an
	official WG15 document (WG15 N697) for circulation to WG15 Member
	bodies, thus allowing the Netherlands to see the complete text.

	N696 discusses a problem with 1003.1g which has to do with 64-bit
	implementations and the UK wishes to have the IEEE version of the
	draft modified to include the suggestions in N696.

	1003.1g mandates the use of size_t in a number of interfaces and
	structures where such use is unwarranted and contrary to existing
	industry practice (BSD, Winsock, etc.) which use int's.

	This issue has assumed increased importance as the major UNIX
	vendors move from 32-bit ILP32 platforms to 64-bit LP64
	platforms.  On ILP32 platforms size_t is the same size as an int
	so there is no major problems with the use of size_t.  However on
	LP64 platforms size_t is 64 bits whilst int remains at 32 bits.
	One of the major goals of POSIX, which is to achieve application
	portability, is therefore compromised.


	3. UK Delegation:

	The UK delegation consisted of:
		Nick Stoughton	UK BSI IST/5/-/15 Convener
		Martin Kirk	X/Open liaison
		Andrew Josey	X/Open (IEEE Interpretations Chair)
		David Cannon	University of Exeter


	David Cannon
	31-Oct-1996