ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG8 N Title: Second Interim Report on the Project Editor's Review of ISO 8879 Source: SGML SWG Project: 1.18.15.1 Project editor: C. F. Goldfarb Status of document: Approved report Requested action: For information Date: 22 April 1994 Distribution: WG8 and liaisons ISO 8879 (SGML) was published in October 1986, and in 1991 was subject to the formal 5-year review ballot required of all ISO standards. The ballot reaffirmed ISO 8879 (source: SC18 N3128). With this support, WG8 directed the Project Editor to conduct a systematic review of the standard to consider future development. I. Principles and policy WG8 has agreed to a set of principles for any future development (JTC1/SC18/WG8 N1289). These principles ensure that all existing conforming SGML documents will continue to conform after any changes are made to the standard. WG8 has also adopted a policy for the review (JTC1/SC18/WG8 N1350). The review process ensures that every clause, paragraph, note, and syntax production of ISO 8879 is reviewed. II. Review activities The review is structured in two related activities: Activity 1. Information described by SGML markup The objective of this activity is to define explicitly the information described by the SGML syntax and to group it, as appropriate, into useful "information sets", such as the Element Structure Information Set (ESIS) (see annex A of ISO/IEC DIS 13673). Activity 2. Proposed changes to ISO 8879 The objective of this activity is to identify changes required to correct or enhance the text of ISO 8879, and to publish a revised edition of the standard that incorporates those changes and the changes made by Amendment 1 (1988). The activity will be conducted in the following sequence: 1. Evaluation of submitted comments This step is occurring concurrently with Activity 1. Comments, in the form submitted, are reviewed at a meeting of the WG8 SGML Rapporteur Group, which prepares a response to the submitter. The response classifies the comment in terms of whether it identifies a requirement that should be addressed by a revision of the standard: A) Does not identify a requirement that should be addressed. Such responses typically include a clarification of a misunderstanding or an erroneous or contradictory assumption of the applicant. B) Identifies a requirement that should be addressed. C) Will be studied further during the clause-by-clause review. From time to time the RG may add class B comments to a published list of requirements expected to be satisfied by the revision of SGML. The failure of a comment to be added to this list, however, does not preclude it being included in the final list of requirements to be satisfied (see step 3, below). 2. Clause-by-clause examination of the standard This step will begin when a complete draft of Activity 1 has been created. It will result in more additions to the list of requirements expected to be satisfied by the revision of SGML. 3. Member Body approval of requirements to be satisfied The list of requirements generated by the earlier steps will be reviewed for technical accuracy. A final list of "Requirements to be Satisfied by the Revision of ISO 8879", including the expected changes needed to satisfy the requirements, will be submitted for Member Body approval. Also submitted will be the reasons why the list fails to include any requirement that had previously been identified as a requirement expected to be satisfied. 4. Preparation and balloting of text of changes Text will be prepared for the changes needed to satisfy the approved requirements and will be ballotted in accordance with ISO directives. 5. Publication of revised ISO 8879 Upon approval of the text of the changes, the changes will be incorporated into the text of ISO 8879, together with Amendment 1, and the integrated text will be published. III. Status of the Project Editor's review Three papers have been prepared for Activity I: N1710 documents the "Class and Object Vocabulary" that we use in defining the information that SGML markup describes. N1711, "Information Described by SGML Markup" is a first attempt (incomplete) to create that definition, using the terminology of N1710. N1712 is the starting point for our consideration of "Document Addressing Methods Used by SGML Applications", including those in existing and proposed WG8 standards. Our objectives include facilitating precise and unambiguous definition of addressing methods, and facilitating transforms among them. The review has progressed sufficiently that we can state that changes will be recommended. In order to acquaint the SGML community with the types of change we are contemplating, we published an initial list of requirements expected to be satisfied by a revision of ISO 8879, together with associated changes (if any) in May, 1993 (WG 8 N1605). An additional list is included in this report. Please note that the list is by no means complete with respect either to the set of requirements or the possible changes associated with each requirement. Nor do we believe it to be statistically representative of the changes that we will eventually recommend. The new list items follow, in no particular order: Requirement: To support multi-byte character sets with greater convenience 1. We will devise a less burdensome method for declaring long sequences of character numbers. Requirement: To facilitate name-space modularization in DTDs and LPDs