ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 N481

Draft 2, 28 June 2007, Joyce Tokar

Draft Detailed Agenda
Meeting #52 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9
29 June 2007
Geneva, Switzerland

In accordance with Resolution 51-4, the next meeting of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 9 will be held in conjunction with the 2007 Ada-Europe conference, Friday morning, 29 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:00 am. I am expecting that a data projector will be provided for the meeting.

Conference and venue information can be found at the conference web site.

The announcement and preliminary agenda for this meeting were circulated as N480.

In the absence of the convener, Joyce Tokar has consented to preside at the meeting. Alok Srivastava has agreed to serve as meeting Secretary.


Agenda

References


Detailed Agenda Items


Opening Orders, Joyce Tokar, Acting Convener

Call to Order

[The Acting Convener, Joyce Tokar, called the meeting to order at 9:00 am (thereby adjourning meeting #51 which had been recessed subject to the call of the convener).]

Welcoming Remarks by Host

[Ada Europe <> made some brief welcoming remarks.]

Appointment of Meeting Secretary

[Alok Srivastava volunteered to serve as meeting Secretary.]

Approval of Agenda

[The meeting agenda was approved.]

Approval of Minutes of Meeting #51

Background

The draft minutes of Meeting #51 are recorded in document N478. [They were approved.]

Resolution:

[Resolution 52-1]

[Agenda]


National Body Introductions and Reports

Attendees:

National Body Representatives:

Belgium

Dirk Craeynest (HOD)

 

Canada 

Brad Moore (HOD), Steve Michell

 

France

Pascal Leroy (HOD)

Report

Germany

Erhard Ploedereder

 

Italy

Tullio Vardanega (HOD)

 

Japan

Kiyoshi Ishihata (HOD) (unable to attend)

 

Switzerland

Urs Mauer (HOD)

 

UK

John Barnes (HOD)

Report

USA

Matthew Heaney (Acting HOD)

 

Liaison Representatives:

Ada-Europe

Erhard Ploedereder | Tullio Vardanega

SIGAda

Alok Srivastava

WG9 Officers:

Convener

Joyce Tokar (Acting)

Webmaster

Clyde Roby (unable to attend)

ARG Rapporteur

Pascal Leroy (unable to attend)

HRG Rapporteur

Alan Burns (unable to attend)

PRG Rapporteur

Steve Michell (acting)

Project Editors

ISO/IEC 8652: Erhard Ploedereder, Randy Brukardt (unable to attend), and Pascal Leroy (unable to attend)

ISO/IEC 13813 and 13814: Don Sando, Jon Squire and Ken Dritz (all unable to attend)

ISO/IEC 14519: Ted Baker (unable to attend)

ISO/IEC 15291: Clyde Roby and Greg Gicca (all unable to attend)

ISO/IEC TR 15942: Brian Wichman (unable to attend)

ISO/IEC 18009: Erhard Ploedereder

ISO/IEC TR 24718: Alan Burns (unable to attend)

Other Attendees:

 Guests:

.

HOD Reports:

France:

Received from Jean-Pierre Rosen, 19 June 2007

The Ada group of AFNOR met on 2007-06-08. It reviewed the agenda of the upcominng WG9 meeting.

After reviewing the proposed AIs, the group decided to approve them, except AI05-0013-1/0 which will be withdrawn at the request of the ARG.

France proposes that at the next WG9 meeting, a motion be added in memoriam Jean Ichbiah who passed away this year.

[Agenda]

UK:

Received from John Barnes, 13 May 2007

The UK Ada panel met recently. There was a feeling that can be best be expressed as follows.

"We would like Ada 2015 to concentrate on eliminating existing messes rather than creating new ones."

This arose out of a discussion regarding such matters as why constraints are ignored on renaming.

[Agenda]


Liaison Reports


Report of Ada-Europe Liaison Representative, Erhard Ploedereder

Background

Ada-Europe is a Category C Liaison to WG9 [See N414]

Report

[No written report]

[Agenda]


Report of SIGAda Liaison Representative, Currie Colket

Background

SIGAda is a Category C Liaison to WG9 [See N414]

Report

N479  SIGAda contribution, Clyde Roby, Notes of Birds-of-a-Feather session on POSIX-Ada Binding, conducted at SIGAda 2006, November 15, 2006, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

[Agenda]


Convener's Report

Convener's Term

Because of a loss of financial support, Jim Moore has resigned as convener of SC22/WG9, and will not be attending this conference or the WG9 meeting. 

At the next plenary meeting of SC22, with the approval of the US National Body, Joyce Tokar will be appointed to a three-year term as convener of WG9. That term will expire at the 2010 plenary meeting of SC22, presumably in September 2010.

Goals for this Meeting

The most important work for this meeting is to organize WG9 to conduct the various items of work that recently started. These include the POSIX/Ada binding, extended containers, and ASIS.


[Agenda]


Summary of Action Items and Unimplemented Resolutions

This is the "To Do" list for WG9. Some are informal action items assigned to various participants. Some are formal resolutions, which are not yet implemented. Some items are simply in suspense awaiting action by other groups.

Action Item 47-1A

[Editor, TR 24718] Monitor implementation by ITTF of free availability for ISO/IEC TR 24718.

For status, see: [Project Editor Maintenance Report, 24718]

Resolution 48-7 

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be confirmed when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: ISO/IEC 8652:1995, Information Technology--Programming Languages--Ada, as amended by COR.1:2001. This recommendation is made with the understanding that WG9 is currently preparing an amendment to the standard with completion expected during 2006. 

For status: See [Project Editor Maintenance Report, 8652]

Action Item 50-1

[Convener] Investigate the possibility that ANSI might be willing to sell the revised ASIS standard ISO/IEC 15291:200x inexpensively, i.e. at a price similar to that of programming language standards -- $18.

Status: Open. It has been surprisingly difficult to obtain the appropriate contact information.

Resolution 50-5:

WG9 requests that the ARG consider solutions to the problem described in comment 12 of N459 [containers], as well as other possible extensions to the standard library, and develop a New Work Item Proposal for a Type 2 Technical Report that will provide a "trial use" specification to users and implementers, and that will be suitable for future standardization.

For status: See [Report of Ada Rapporteur Group]

Resolution 50-9:

Noting the current systematic review of ISO/IEC 14519 and the absence of any working group responsible for maintenance of the standard, SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the standard should be confirmed in the current review and states its willingness to accept the editorial responsibility for the standard. It offers the services of Steve Michell (Canada) to serve as project editor, subject to national body confirmation.

For status: See [Project Editor Maintenance Report, 14519]

Resolution 51-7:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be withdrawn when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: 

  • ISO/IEC 13813:1998 Generic packages of real and complex type declarations and basic operations for Ada (including vector and matrix types) ]

For status, see: [Project Editor Maintenance Report, 13813]


[Agenda]


Scheduling of Meetings

Background

Resolution 51-4 scheduled meeting #52 in conjunction with the 2007 Ada-Europe conference, 29 June 2007, in Geneva, Switzerland. The resolution offered below confirms the previous resolution and states the intention of WG9 to collocate meeting #53 with the 2007 SIGAda conference on the afternoon of Sunday, 4 November 2007 in Fairfax, VA, USA.

Discussion

The recommendation to move the November 2007 meeting to the Sunday prior to the SIGAda conference was made at the request of the previous convener, Jim Moore.  Given the change in the organization of WG9 and the membership of WG9, the date of this meeting has been reconsidered.

Resolution

[Resolution 52-4]


[Agenda]


Project Editor Maintenance Reports


Project Editor Maintenance Report, ISO/IEC 8652

Document Status

ISO/IEC 8652:1995 Information Technology--Programming Languages--Ada, 22.10.01, Randy Brukardt and Erhard Ploedereder, Project Editors, supported by the Ada Rapporteur Group.

ISO/IEC 8652:1995/COR.1:2001, Technical Corrigendum to Information Technology--Programming Languages--Ada, 22.10.01, Randy Brukardt and Erhard Ploedereder, Project Editors, supported by the Ada Rapporteur Group.

Maintenance action recommendation is due in 2005 for systematic review in 2006.

Project Status

The request for subdivision [N388] of Project 22.10.01, to create AMD.1 was endorsed by WG9 Resolution 40-7 [N389], and approved by SC22 N3310 on 2001-09-12. The project editors are Randy Brukardt and Pascal Leroy, supported by the Ada Rapporteur Group. Preparation of the Working Draft was delegated to the United States for execution by Axe Consulting. The draft prepared by Axe was contributed to WG9 as [N460]. SC22 has approved Resolution 05-29 authorizing its Secretariat to to initiate an FPDAM ballot for ISO/IEC 8652: 1995, Ada, upon receipt of the text from the WG9 (Ada) Convener. The convener submitted the draft as [N467]. The FPDAM ballot completed successfully with no dissent and no comments. The editor prepared a draft for FDAM ballot at the JTC1 level. It has been submitted to the SC22 Secretariat.

Continuing Item

Resolution 48-4: 

WG9 requests the project editor of the 8652 amendment to remain prepared to respond to any request from ITTF for a manuscript of a third edition to 8652. 

Open Items

Resolution 48-7:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be confirmed when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: ISO/IEC 8652:1995, Information Technology--Programming Languages--Ada, as amended by COR.1:2001. This recommendation is made with the understanding that WG9 is currently preparing an amendment to the standard with completion expected during 2006. 

Status: The ISO web site indicates that systematic review is underway.

Report

[No written report.]

Resolution

[No resolution.]


[Agenda]


Project Editor Maintenance Report, ISO/IEC 13813 and 13814

Document Status

ISO/IEC 13813:1998, Information Technology--Programming Languages--Generic Packages of Real and Complex Type Declarations and Basic Operations for Ada (including Vector and Matrix Types), 22.10.04, Don Sando and Ken Dritz, Project Editors

The standard addresses the Ada 87 language. WG9 plans to incorporate the substance of this standard in the Amendment to ISO/IEC 8652:1995. WG9 has recommended that the 1998 standard be confirmed during the period while the Amendment is under preparation.

ISO/IEC 13814:1998, Information Technology--Programming Languages--Generic Package of Complex Elementary Functions for Ada, 22.10.05, Jon Squire and Ken Dritz, Project Editors

WG9 has voted to withdraw this standard by year-end 2004. (The action awaits implementation by ITTF.) The standard addressed the Ada 87 language and is effectively replaced by the 1995 language standard.

Open Items

Resolution 40-6:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be confirmed when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: 

  • ISO/IEC 13813:1998 Generic packages of real and complex type declarations and basic operations for Ada (including vector and matrix types) 

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be withdrawn when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: 

  • ISO/IEC 13814:1998 Generic package of complex elementary functions for Ada 
Resolution 51-7:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be withdrawn when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: 

  • ISO/IEC 13813:1998 Generic packages of real and complex type declarations and basic operations for Ada (including vector and matrix types) ]

Status: OPEN. The recommendations above were endorsed by SC22 Resolution 01-07 at their September 2001 plenary meeting. They have been forwarded to JTC1 for approval (during 2003) and implementation by ITTF (during 2004). However, JTC1 voted to confirm ISO/IEC 13814 rather than withdraw it as requested by WG9 and SC22. The SC22 Secretariat conducted a letter ballot authorizing it to request that JTC1 reconsider its action. Accordingly, the request was sent to JTC1 and JTC1 responded by circulating a letter ballot (J1N7405) to withdraw the standard. The ballot ended on 22 June 2004 with the decision to recommend withdrawal (22N7451). At its 2005 plenary meeting, SC22 approved resolution 05-05: "JTC1/SC22, noting JTC1/SC22 Resolution 01-07 and that this withdrawal request has not been completed and that this standard is listed as confirmed on the ISO website, requests that the withdrawal of ISO/IEC 13814: 1998 be implemented." At the 2006 SC22 plenary, it was noted that the status indication on the ISO web site has been changed recently to 95.20, indicating that the ISO-level ballot to withdraw the standard has commenced. The recommendation to withdraw ISO/IEC 13813 has been submitted to SC22.

Report

[No written report.]

[Should this report be revised given resolution 51-7 from the last meeting:

Resolution 51-7:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be withdrawn when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: 

  • ISO/IEC 13813:1998 Generic packages of real and complex type declarations and basic operations for Ada (including vector and matrix types) ]

[Agenda]


Project Editor Maintenance Report, ISO/IEC 14519

Document Status

ISO/IEC 14519:2001 Ed. 2, Information technology -- POSIX Ada Language Interfaces -- Binding for System Application Program Interface (API), 22.21.04.02, Ted Baker, Project Editor

In 2005, this document was reassigned by SC22, from WG15 to WG9.

Open Items

Resolution 50-9:

Noting the current systematic review of ISO/IEC 14519 and the absence of any working group responsible for maintenance of the standard, SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the standard should be confirmed in the current review and states its willingness to accept the editorial responsibility for the standard. It offers the services of Steve Michell (Canada) to serve as project editor, subject to national body confirmation.

Status: SC22 reassigned the standard to WG9 with Ted Baker as project editor. Processing of the document's confirmation by systematic review has not been completed.

Email note from Ted Baker, 31 October 2006

I regret to say that will not be able to attend. I have exchanged several e-mails with Stephen Michell on the subject of the POSIX Ada binding standard. I provided him with a pdf version of the POSIX Ada binding document, so that he and a group of Canadian colleagues could review it. I understand that they will be estimating the scope of work that would be required to bring the standard up to date with respect to Ada and the base POSIX/Unix C-language API. There have been a few other exchanges, with a representative of Adacore Technologies and a user. The scope of the project can be scaled to fit the available human resources, by limiting the changes to only features that are not already provided by the existing POSIX Ada binding and the Ada language *and* have been requested by members of the Ada community. To this end, it might be reasonable to ask WG9 representatives to provide some e-mail lists of individuals and organizations that we could poll, to determine a list of features for which there is a demand.

Report

[No written report.]


[Agenda]


Project Editor Maintenance Report, ISO/IEC 15291

Document Status

ISO/IEC 15291:1999, Information Technology--Programming Languages--Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS), 22.15291, Clyde Roby and Greg Gicca, Project Editors, supported by the ASIS Rapporteur Group.

This document was "confirmed" by JTC1 in its 2004 systematic review.

Report

[No written report.]


[Agenda]


Project Editor Maintenance Report, ISO/IEC TR 15942

Document Status

ISO/IEC TR 15942:2000, Guidance for the Use of Ada in High Integrity Systems, 22.15942, Brian Wichmann, Project Editor, supported by the Annex H Rapporteur Group.

This is a Type 3 Technical Report; it is publicly available.

Open Items

SC22 Resolution 04-05: Standards for 2005 Periodic Review

JTC1/SC22 recommends to JTC1 that at the end of their 5-year review period, the following standards and technical report be confirmed:  ISO/IEC TR 15942: 2000, Guidance for the use of Ada Programming Language in High-Integrity Systems.

Status: The request was forwarded to JTC1 for action during 2005. However, the result of their action is not evident. The convener has requested clarification.

Report

[No written report.]


[Agenda]


Project Editor Maintenance Report, ISO/IEC 18009

Document Status

ISO/IEC 18009:1999, Conformity Assessment of an Ada Language Processor, 22.18009, Erhard Ploedereder, Project Editor, supported by the Ada Rapporteur Group.

This document was "confirmed" by JTC1 in its 2004 systematic review.

Report

[No written report.]


[Agenda]


Project Editor Maintenance Report, ISO/IEC TR 24718

Document Status

ISO/IEC TR 24718:2005, Guide for the use of the Ada Ravenscar Profile in high integrity systems

22.24718, Alan Burns, Project Editor, supported by the Annex H Rapporteur Group

This is a Type 3 Technical Report providing guidance for users; it is publicly available.

Open Item:

Action Item 47-1A:

[Editor, TR 24718] Monitor implementation by ITTF of free availability for ISO/IEC TR 24718.

Status: The 2005 JTC1 letter ballot on free availability for TR 24718 (the Ravenscar Guide) completed with no objections. The request has been forwarded to ITTF for implementation. At its 2005 plenary meeting, SC22 approved resolution 05-01 reiterating the request. At its 2006 plenary meeting, SC22 passed resolution 06-06 again repeating the request and specifically citing criteria. This standard is available on the ITTF Web site of publicly available standards.  This action item may be CLOSED.

Report

[No Report]

[Agenda]


Report of Ada Rapporteur Group, Pascal Leroy (Rapporteur)

Background

WG9 [N406]: Procedures of the ARG

Resolution 44-4 of [N428]: The convener directs the chair of the ARG to send the list of AIs intended for submission to WG9 to NB and liaison representatives at the time they enter the 'editorial review' state. It would then be the duty of each NB and liaison representative to circulate this information within their own organization for the purpose of developing a position for the forthcoming meeting of WG9.

WG9 N464r, N468: Terms of reference and approach for the revision of ISO/IEC 15291 (approved by Resolution 50-7 [N470])

Resolution 50-6 of [N470]: Until otherwise directed by WG9, the ARG is requested to observe the following priorities in its work: (1, the highest priority) develop a revision of ISO/IEC 15291, ASIS; (2) respond to Defect Reports and/or Ada Issues on ISO/IEC 8652; (3) develop Technical Reports or Standards improving the Ada libraries--notably with respect to containers; and (4) consider proposals for extending the language.

Open Items

Resolution 50-5:

WG9 requests that the ARG consider solutions to the problem described in comment 12 of N459 [containers], as well as other possible extensions to the standard library, and develop a New Work Item Proposal for a Type 2 Technical Report that will provide a "trial use" specification to users and implementers, and that will be suitable for future standardization.

Status: Open

Previous Discussion re AMD.1 to ISO/IEC 8652

From Minutes of Meeting #49 [N458]

While it is understood that the document delivered to WG9 is the Amendment document, the ARG, in compliance with resolution 48-3, is prepared to provide an integrated document (known in the vernacular as Reference Manual), and special care has been taken to ensure the consistency of these documents.

Previous Discussion re Revision of ISO/IEC 15291

From Minutes of Meeting #49 [N458]

There was discussion of the appropriate scope of the revision: update enough to permit access to the new Ada language features or restructure the interfaces to exploit the new language features. It was suggested that it might be appropriate to ask the users of ASIS what they prefer. (Several papers at the SIGAda conference mentioned the use of ASIS.) The work should minimize impact on existing ASIS programs by paying attention to backward compatibility. ...

The amended document was retitled as "Approved Plan for the Revision of the ASIS Standard, ISO/IEC 15291" and renumbered as [N457].

Report

The ARG met in Albuquerque, NM, in November, and in Paris, France, in June.  Roughly half of each meeting was devoted to ASIS, and the remaining to maintenance of Ada 2005.

In accordance with decisions taken at the previous ARG meeting, Randy Brukardt and Greg Gicca worked on converting the ASIS 99 standard to the toolset used for producing the Ada 2005 Amendment.  This activity took longer than expected because it uncovered a number of issues with the existing standard.  One important issue is that the ASIS 99 standard contains a lot of non-normative text that is not clearly separated from the normative text.  It was decided to fix this by moving the non-normative text to user notes (for text relevant to users of ASIS) or to annotations in a newly created Annotated ASIS standard (for text relevant only to implementers).

Good progress was made on adding support for the new Ada 2005 syntax, and some SIs have been provisionally approved by the ARG.  They are not submitted to WG9 at this point, though, as it is possible that some of them will need revision as the work progresses.  An important item for the ASIS revision is the definition of a set of services for analyzing the static semantics (as opposed to: the syntax) of Ada programs.  While we are far from having a stable proposal on this topic, it seems that a consensus is slowly emerging on the type of services that we would like to offer and the way that they should be structured.

It is apparent that the ASIS work is behind the tentative schedule defined at the Porto ARG meeting.  In order to keep the process under control, the ARG is planning an additional meeting in Tampa, FL, in February, 2008.

On the Ada 2005 front, an unexpectedly large number of AIs has been generated both by implementers and by test writers.  While some of them are mostly editorial in nature, there are a good number of bugs in the Amendment which need to be addressed relatively quickly.  For this reason, the ARG is submitting a number of Ada 2005 AIs to WG9 for approval, expecting that once approved they will be taken into account by implementers and test writers.  It is worth noting that at the Paris meeting the ARG only covered about half of the Ada 2005 AIs on the agenda.

The ARG has its "usual" motion for the June meeting for approval of a series of AIs. See the list below.  Pointers to retrieve the AIs are included.  The list includes one Ada 95 AI: this is not a mistake; this AI makes it possible for existing compilers to support new Ada 2005 syntax in their Ada 95 implementation, in order to ease transition to the new language.

The cited AIs can be found online at http://www.ada-auth.org/AI-SUMMARY.HTML and http://www.ada-auth.org/AI05-SUMMARY.HTML.

Ada 95 AI:

AI95-00447-01/02   2006-06-16 --  Null_exclusions allowed in Ada 95

Ada 2005 AIs:

AI05-0007-1/03   2006-12-13 --  Stream 'Read and private scalar types

AI05-0014-1/02   2006-06-20 --  Accessibility of designated objects

AI05-0015-1/03   2006-12-13 --  Constant return objects

AI05-0016-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Others => <> can be used in place of null record

AI05-0020-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Universal operators of fixed point and access types

AI05-0021-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Issues with containers

AI05-0025-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Missing legality rules for formal_package_association

Discussion

From meeting #49 -- Applying AIs Retroactively

Request from ARG

The ARG Rapporteur posed the following question: Should it be permitted to select AIs of the amendment and implement them upon Ada 95?

Discussion

The ARG Rapporteur reported that there has been email discussion of applying some of the AIs of the amendment to the unamended language. It has been suggested that the AIs that constitute "corrections" or "clarifications" should be applied to old compilers.

The Convener stated that AIs become part of the standard only when incorporated into a Corrigendum or an Amendment. AIs that are not incorporated but result in changing tests indicate only that the test was incorrect.

Randy Brukardt (who operates the Ada Conformity Assessment Authority) noted that currently the ACATS suite is updated only for the Technical Corrigendum and has not been updated as a result of any AIs since then. As this is the operational test of conformity, it would not be possible to certify a compiler as conforming if it were to apply AIs processed since that date, but short of the full amendment.

As a result of the discussion, the following resolution was approved.

Resolution

Resolution 49-7:

WG9 recommends that all effort in enhancing the ACATS should be dedicated to tests appropriate for assessing conformance to Ada 2005.

Resolutions

[ Resolution 52-2 ] [Resolution 52-6]

[Agenda]


Report of Annex H Rapporteur Group, Alan Burns (Rapporteur)

Background

WG9 N416, Charter of the HRG

Open Item

Prior Discussion

From the Minutes of Meeting #49 [N458]

The HRG has not met since the last meeting of WG9. It has reviewed (by email) its future agenda and has decided that it should revisit the Guidelines for use of Ada in High Integrity Applications [ISO/IEC 15942] report with a view to updating it for Ada 2005. A plan to review this report will be drawn up once the Ada 2005 definition has been passed by WG9.

From the Minutes of Meeting #49 [N458]

Both Steve Michell and Erhard Ploedereder stated that they planned to participated in OWG:Vulnerability representing Canada and Germany respectively.

Report

[No written report]

Resolutions

[ Resolution 52-3 ]

[Agenda]

 


Report of POSIX/Ada binding Rapporteur Group, Steve Michell (Rapporteur -- Acting)

Background

Email note from Steve Michell, 6 September 2006:

Dear all,

In June of this year, at Canada's suggestion, WG9 asked SC22 to give it IS14519 the Ada-POSIX Binding standard. The intention was to look into bringing it up to date to POSIX 2003 or 2008? and Ada2005. SC22 will be considering that request in 2 weeks, but I expect that WG9 will be given the document.

That being said, we need to see if we can find a way to update the standard.

Ted Baker is the editor of record and has expressed his willingness to keep that position and help in any update. Ted is also the grandfather of Florist, a publically available Ada POSIX binding, which is now being maintained by AdaCore. We have also been in contact AdaCore to ask if they are interested in supporting an update to this document. There response on "interest" was affirmative. Of course we don't know how much effort or support they would be willing to put into the activity.

I am looking to assemble a project to maintain IS14519. For now I am looking for people who would be interested in participating in the project with the hope that some of them might even be able to drum up funding support. As the core of the folks that I know that may have an interest in Ada and POSIX, I would ask your help in identifying others who might be interested in the project, at either a technical level or a support level.

The maintenance of IS14519 could be be anything from a fairly small project to a massive one. The binding is a thick binding; the standard is for Ada87 to POSIX 198?. Both have grown and changed significantly in that time. How much is done is going to depend upon how much energy and money we can find to tackle it, and on the time that we think that we
can apply.

I was thinking of the following timeline:

  • September 2006 - SC22 gives document to WG9.
  • November 2006 SIGADA - we have a BOF or serious session to discuss how we can tackle the work, how much we can accomplish and set plans for a project.
  • November 2006 WG9 - we discuss at WG9 if we can get enough of our act together, maybe create an RG and select a rapporteur.
  • April 2007 IRTAW - we have a 0.5 day or 1 day session on Ada POSIX
  • June 2007 WG9 - ?
  • Onwards

Please give me your thoughts and please help me find others who might be seriously interested in POSIX Ada.
thanks
...stephen

[In a separate note, Canada offered Ian MacWilliam and Luke Wong as resources for POSIX work.]

Email note from Brad Moore, 3 November 2006:

Canada submits the attached document [forthcoming, Nxxx] to WG9 as a summary of our investigation into the effort required to revise IS14519 Ada binding to POSIX to reflect Ada 2005 and POSIX 2008 (draft).

The document identifies all existing POSIX calls, separates them into subject area, determines if they have been considered by the 14519:2001 and are in or omitted by that binding. It then considers the new functions from 9945:2008 and categorizes them as to the likely handling. Note that this document is in a volatile state and reflects current thinking, which will change over time.

From our analysis, there should be less than 150 calls to POSIX to implement the remaining required functionality. If streams and POSIX real time can be determined to be not required, this will reduce the total significantly. Much of the new functionality seems to be file, directory, and process permissions, lock files, user database accounting, codeset conversion, encryption, tracing, system logging, locales, process spawning, threads and shared memory.

We did not compare the semantics or parameter signature of existing POSIX calls to the proposed semantics and calling signature. There may be substantial differences at this level. We are taking another pass to consider parameters, error returns and operation signatures and should be able to give more details at the WG9 meeting.

Based on our analysis, we believe that an update to 14519 is possible by a WG9 RG working in volunteer mode. We expect such a document to take about 2 years to develop and integrate, plus a year of balloting for a standard.

We would propose maintaining the "thick binding" approach. The existing binding was developed this way, and one of Ada's main strengths is its safety. Changing to a thin binding would result in significantly more work for the user of this binding to maintain the inherent safety that 14519 currently provides.

Much of the possible additions are stream functions. We believe that Ada stream support makes the POSIX streams irrelevant, but need the help of Ada implementers to confirm this.

Some of the possible additions are posix threads operations. We believe that Ada tasking should not be mixed with POSIX threads, except where the underlying OS uses threads to implement tasks. We need further discussion with implementers and as a RG to decide what to do.

We believe that the POSIX realtime thread support is superseded by Ada real time tasking. We would like IRTAW 2007 to examine the Ada Real time paradigms and POSIX Realtime Thread paradigms and give us an opinion.

We believe that there are now opportunities to deprecate current POSIX sections and operations because Ada has added new functionality. Most likely candidates are in the areas of Directories, Files and Threads.

We propose that WG9 create a rapporteur group for this work. We would propose Luke Wong, CMCElectronics or Stephen Michell for this role. Ted Baker, the present editor of 14519:2001 has stated his preference to remain editor of this document. We would support this position. We would expect that a first meeting of this RG should happen Feb 2007. 

Birds-of-a-Feather session on POSIX-Ada Binding, conducted at SIGAda 2006, November 15, 2006 N479

Prior Discussion

It was decided that it would be appropriate to create a distinct Rapporteur Group to deal with the POSIX/Ada binding. Luke Wong (Canada) would be a sensible choice for Rapporteur pending confirmation and support by his company and the Canadian national body. In the intervening time, Steve Michell (Canada) is willing to serve as Rapporteur. The initial approach would be to carry out the suggestions by Ted Baker, reported above.

It's not clear that a New Work Item Proposal is needed immediately. However, the Rapporteur Group should develop a statement of scope and some operating procedures.

Discussion

Report

[No written report]

Resolutions

[Agenda]


Committee of the Whole

Because some issues before WG9 were not accompanied by specific proposals, a Committee of the Whole was used to permit free discussion of the issues and the drafting of resolutions addressing the issues.

The Future of HRG

Issues

The Canadian delegation has raised a concern regarding the lack of progress with the HRG incorporation of Ada 2005 concepts.

Discussion

 

 

[Agenda]


Unfinished Business

[The convener knows of no unfinished business.]

[Agenda]


New Business

Memorandum for Jean Ichbiah

Background
Jean Ichbiah, the lead designer of the original Ada language, died early in the evening of Friday, January 26, 2007.  Jean had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in September 2005 and fought tenaciously throughout the treatment. Funeral services were held on Tuesday, January 30, in Burlington, Massachusetts, where he lived these last years.
The French delegation has called for a motion in the memory of Jean Ichbiah

Discussion

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Resolution
[Resolution 52-14][Agenda]

Administrative Actions

Action:

We appreciate the comfortable accommodations provided by SIGAda. The resolution expresses WG9's gratitude.

[Resolution 51-10]

Action:

We appreciate the services of the meeting Secretary, Clyde Roby. The resolution expresses WG9's gratitude.

[Resolution 51-11]

Action:

We appreciate the continuing services of the WG9 Web Master. The resolution expresses WG9's gratitude.

[Resolution 51-12]

Action:

We appreciate the services of the meeting Chair, Erhard Ploedereder. The resolution expresses WG9's gratitude.

[Resolution 51-13]


Review of New Action Items

[TBD]

[Agenda]


Final Consideration of Resolutions

[Numbering of resolutions is provisional and may be changed following the meeting.]

Administration

Resolution 52-1:

The minutes of Meeting #51 as contained in document N478 are approved.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-2:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 continues its Ada Rapporteur Group until the next plenary meeting and expresses its grateful appreciation to the Rapporteur and the members for their continuing service.

Pascal Leroy (France) is continued as Rapporteur.

The membership of the ARG is designated to be: Steve Baird (SIGAda), John Barnes (UK), Randy Brukardt (US), Alan Burns (UK), Robert Dewar (US), Gary Dismukes (US), Robert Duff (US), Kiyoshi Ishihata (Japan), Bibb Latting (US), Pascal Leroy (France), Brad Moore (Canada), Erhard Ploedereder (Germany), Jean-Pierre Rosen (France), Ed Schonberg (US), Tucker Taft (US), Bill Thomas (SIGAda), and Tullio Vardanega (Italy).

The Convener of WG9 is authorized to act for WG9 between meetings in appointing additional members of the ARG. In doing so, he shall consult with the Rapporteur and the National Body or Liaison Organization nominating the member.

Rapporteurs are instructed that they may permit other individuals to observe the deliberations of the Rapporteur Group. The admission of observers and the extent of participation permitted to observers are at the discretion of the Rapporteur with the concurrence of the membership of the Rapporteur Group.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-3:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 continues its Annex H Rapporteur Group until the next plenary meeting and expresses its grateful appreciation to the Rapporteur and the members for their continuing service.

Alan Burns (UK) is continued as Rapporteur.

The membership of the HRG is designated to be: Peter Amey (UK), John Barnes (UK), Patrick de Bondeli (France), Alan Burns (UK), Rod Chapman (UK), Robert Dewar (US), Bob Duff (US), Michael Holloway (SIGAda), Stephen Michell (Canada), Michael Pickett (UK), Erhard Ploedereder (Germany), Juan Antonio de la Puente (Ada Europe), George Romanski (SIGAda), Jean-Pierre Rosen (France), Mark Saaltink (Canada),  Tullio Vardanega (Italy), and Brian Wichmann (UK).

The Convener of WG9 is authorized to act for WG9 between meetings in appointing additional members of the HRG. In doing so, he shall consult with the Rapporteur and the National Body or Liaison Organization nominating the member.

Rapporteurs are instructed that they may permit other individuals to observe the deliberations of the Rapporteur Group. The admission of observers and the extent of participation permitted to observers are at the discretion of the Rapporteur with the concurrence of the membership of the Rapporteur Group.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-4:

WG9 schedules future meetings as follows:

  • Meeting #53, in conjunction with the 2007 SIGAda conference on Sunday afternoon, 4 November 2007, Fairfax, VA, USA.
  • Meeting #54 in conjunction with the 2008 Ada-Europe conference, Friday morning, 20 June 2008, Venice, Italy.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Work Programme

Resolution 52-5:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 recommends to SC22 that the following Standard be withdrawn when it reaches the end of its five-year review period: 

  • ISO/IEC 13813:1998 Generic packages of real and complex type declarations and basic operations for Ada (including vector and matrix types) 

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-6:

WG9 approves the following AIs, which have been previously approved by the ARG:

AI05-0007-1/03   2006-12-13 --  Stream 'Read and private scalar types

AI05-0014-1/02   2006-06-20 --  Accessibility of designated objects

AI05-0015-1/03   2006-12-13 --  Constant return objects

AI05-0016-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Others => <> can be used in place of null record

AI05-0020-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Universal operators of fixed point and access types

AI05-0021-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Issues with containers

AI05-0025-1/02   2006-12-13 --  Missing legality rules for formal_package_association

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Appreciation

Resolution 52-10:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to Ada-Europe for their gracious accommodations in hosting Meeting #52.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-11

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to Alok Srivastava for serving as Secretary of Meeting #52.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-12:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to Clyde Roby for his continuing service in maintaining the WG9 Web Page.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-13:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its grateful appreciation to Joyce Tokar for serving as Chair of Meeting #52.

[Discussion] [Agenda]

Resolution 52-14:
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 expresses its memory of Ada 83 designer Jean Ichbiah:

Sadly we report the passing away of Jean Ichbiah, the lead designer of the original Ada language.

Jean had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in September 2005 and fought tenaciously throughout the treatment. He died in the early evening of Friday, January 26, 2007, at home as he wished, surrounded by family and friends. Funeral services were held on Tuesday, January 30, in
Burlington, Massachusetts, where he lived these last years.

Dr. Jean Ichbiah led the team at Cii Honeywell Bull that won the
Ada language design competition in the late 1970s. In 1979 he was awarded the French Legion of Honor. In 1980 he founded Alsys, one of the pioneering Ada development tools companies, and while at Alsys he guided the design work culminating in the standardization of the language that would become known as Ada 83.

Ben Brosgol, president of the Ada Resource Association, said: "The computing community has lost one of its shining lights. Jean was an amazing individual who combined technical brilliance with a keen sense of aesthetics. His pioneering contributions to
Ada truly advanced the state of the art in language design. We will miss him."

And to quote John Barnes, long-time president of Ada-Europe: "Jean had an amazing understanding of the basic concepts concerning what programming was really about.
Ada may have its flaws but it is a damn sight better than anything else I know. Jean will be remembered as the inspiration for ideas which have driven many of our careers."

We mourn the passing of a great mind.

[Discussion] [Agenda]


Recess

The meeting is expected to end at noon. It is the convener's request that the meeting should recess subject to her call. HODs may anticipate email ballots to be conducted during the months between this meeting and the next one.

[Agenda]


References

Relevant WG9 Documents

N388, Request for Subdivision of Project ISO/IEC 8652:1995

N389, Minutes, Meeting #40 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 18 May 2001, Leuven, Belgium

N400Minutes, Meeting #41 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 5 October 2001, Bloomington, Minnesota, USA

N404Working Draft, Revision of ISO/IEC 13813

N405, Recommendation on ISO/IEC 13813 from the UK

N406, Procedures of the Ada Rapporteur Group

N409r, Minutes, Meeting #42, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 21 June 2002, Vienna, Austria

N412, Instructions to the Ada Rapporteur Group from SC22/WG9 for Preparation of the Amendment to ISO/IEC 8652, 10 October 2002

N414, Notification of Approval of Category C Liaisons between SC22/WG9 and Ada-Europe and SIGAda

N416, Charter of the Annex H Rapporteur Group (HRG)

N417, Charter of the ASIS Rapporteur Group (ASISRG)

N418, Minutes, Meeting #43, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 13 December 2002, Houston, Texas, USA

N423, Convener's Comments on Instructions to the Ada Rapporteur Group from SC22/WG9 for Preparation of the Amendment to ISO/IEC 8652, December 2002

N424, University of York Technical Report YCS-2003-348, Guide for the use of the Ada Ravenscar Profile in high integrity systems

N426, Proposed New Work Item, Guide for the use of the Ada Ravenscar Profile in High-Integrity Systems

N428r, DRAFT Minutes, Meeting #44 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 20 June 2003, Toulouse, France

N434, Minutes, Meeting #45 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 12 December 2003, San Diego, California, USA

N435, Draft for PDTR Approval Ballot, ISO/IEC TR 24718, Guide for the use of the Ada Ravenscar Profile in high integrity systems, 14 Feb 2004

N437, ARG Rapporteur's Proposal for Defining Scope of Amendment to ISO/IEC 8652:1995, 9 April 2004

N439r, Convener's Report, 2004, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 (Ada)

N440, Minutes, Meeting #46 ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 18 June 2004, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

N441, SC22 N3758, WG9 Request for National Body Contributions on Implementation of Coded Character Sets in Ada (text document),

N442, Draft submitted for DTR Approval Ballot, ISO/IEC TR 24718, Guide for the use of the Ravenscar Profile in high integrity systems, 20 July 2004 (PDF file, 626 KBytes)

N443, Announcement and Draft Agenda, Meeting #47 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Thursday, 18 November 2004 Atlanta, Georgia, USA

N444, Meeting Report: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22, 6-10 September 2004, Jeju, Republic of Korea

N445, DRAFT Explanatory Report re SC22 Resolution 04-15

N446, Draft Detailed Agenda, Meeting #47 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Thursday, 18 November 2004, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

N447, Explanatory Report re SC22 Resolution 04-15

N448, Minutes, Meeting #47 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 18 November 2004, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

N449, Announcement and Draft Agenda, Meeting #48 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 24 June 2005, York, UK

N450, Detailed Agenda, Meeting #48 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 24 June 2005, York, UK

N451, Minutes, Meeting #48, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, Friday, 24 June 2005, York, UK

N452r, Convener's Report, 2005, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 (Ada)

N453, Announcement and Draft Agenda, Meeting #49 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 17 November 2005, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

N454, Meeting Report: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 (Programming Languages, Operating Systems and Environments), 29 September to 2 October 2005, Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada

N455, Draft Detailed Agenda, Meeting #49 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 17 November 2005, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

N456, Convener Proposal for the Revision of the ASIS Standard, ISO/IEC 15291

N457, Approved Plan for the Revision of the ASIS Standard, ISO/IEC 15291

N458, Minutes, Meeting #49, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 17 November 2005, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

N459, Disposition of Informal Comments Received on Editor's Draft of Amendment, 23 March 2006

N460, Editor's Draft, Amendment 1 to ISO/IEC 8652, March 2006

N461, Announcement and Draft Agenda, Meeting #50 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 9 June 2006, Porto, Portugal

N462, JTC1 Directives, 5th edition, Version 2, April 2006 (JTC001-N-8122)

N463, ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, Rules for the structure and drafting of International Standards

N464r, 2nd Preliminary draft New Work Item Proposal for the Revision of ISO/IEC 15291, ASIS

N465, Response of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 to SC22 Resolution 5-15

N466, Draft Detailed Agenda, Meeting #50 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 9 June 2006, Porto, Portugal

N467, Submission of ISO/IEC 8652:1995/FPDAM 1 to SC22 for FPDAM ballot

N468, Example approach for structuring the revised ASIS Standard

N469, John Benito, "OWG: Vulnerability -- A new type of Working Group used for a new SC22 Working Group," for SC22/WG9 Meeting, Porto, Portugal, June 2006

N470, Draft Minutes, Meeting #50, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 9 June 2006, Porto, Portugal

N471, List of AIs approved per resolution 50-8

N472, Proposal to Revise ISO/IEC 15291, Information technology - Programming languages - Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS)

N473, Annual Convener's Report, 2006, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 (Ada)

N474, Announcement and Draft Agenda, Meeting #51 of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 9, 16 November 2006, Albuquerque, NM, USA

N475, Meeting Report: Plenary Meeting of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22, 18-22 September 2006, London, UK.

N477, Canadian Contribution, Initial Work Scope Summary for updating Ada POSIX Bindings IS 14519:2001 to POSIX Draft IS 9945:2008 and Ada 2005.

N478, Minutes, Meeting #51 of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9, 16 November 2006, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

N479, SIGAda contribution, Clyde Roby, Notes of Birds-of-a-Feather session on POSIX-Ada Binding, conducted at SIGAda 2006, November 15, 2006, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

N480, Announcement and Draft Agenda, Meeting #52 of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 9, 29 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland.

External Web Sites

ISO Web Site: http://www.iso.org/

ITTF Web site of publicly available standards: http://isotc.iso.ch/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/PubliclyAvailableStandards.htm.

JTC1 Web Site: http://www.jtc1.org/

SC22 Web Site: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/

WG9 Web Site: http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/WG9/

SC22 High Integrity Ad Hoc Group Web Site: http://www.aitcnet.org/isai/

ACAA Web Site: http://www.ada-auth.org/

ACAA Web Site for ARG Minutes: http://www.ada-auth.org/arg-minutes.html

ACAA Web Site for AIs: http://www.ada-auth.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/AIs/

ACAA Web Site for Amendment: http://www.ada-auth.org/amendment.html

Ada-Europe Web Site: http://www.ada-europe.org/

Ada-Europe 2007 Conference Web Site: http://adae2007.eig.ch/

Ada-Europe 2008 Conference Web Site:  http://www.ada-europe.org/conference2008.html

SIGAda Web Site: http://www.acm.org/sigada/

SIGAda 2006 Conference Web Site: http://www.acm.org/sigada/conf/sigada2007/

[Agenda]


End of Document