Return-Path: Date: Fri, 09 Dec 1994 08:32:01 -0800 (PST) From: Mike Ksar Subject: How to proceed To: edwin_hart@aplmail.jhuapl.edu Cc: ksar@hpcega.ce.hp.com, jbettels@gva05.enet.dec.com, jan.van-den-beld@ecma.ch Message-id: <9412091632.AA08372@hpcega.ce.hp.com> Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Priority: urgent Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ed, As you know, there are a few of us who are very concerned that because of the slow process in SC2/WG2, as proven by the failure of several national bodies to cast ballots on WG2 resolution, we risk that industry will move ahead in allocating coding space in 10646 without waiting for SC2/WG2. This is because of pressing business and market needs. Thus it is necessary to avoid a situation where we have different vendor implementations and different versions of 10646. The proposal below is intended to HELP WG2 to move faster. It would not be a competing line of development. I hope that you and the rest of US X3L2 committee will be favorable towards this proposal and I hope to reach as many national bodies in the next few days as I possibly can. Please call me after you have read this message so that we can discuss it further. Best regards: Mike Here is the proposal: This message is going to key participants in SC2/WG2 group which has published ISO/IEC 10646 in May 1993. Key participants include WG2 national body experts, liaison organizations of SC2, and other experts from industry. This message proposes the creation of an ECMA technical group within TC1 to develop and publish an ECMA version of ISO 10646 which can later be submitted to ISO for Fast Track processing as the second edition of 10646. As many of you are aware, ISO 8859 and all its parts were originally developed and published as ECMA standards which were then published by ISO using the fast track process. More recently, the fourth edition of ISO/IEC 2022 was published by ISO using the ECMA version which was developed by TC1. Such a TC1 project would operate on the following basis: 1. Ensures the continuation of the work of WG2, with WG2 participation as experts, towards the completion of the the various amendments under SC2 ballot now and in the future. 2. Works on additional technical revisions and additions to the first edition of 10646 at a faster rate that the WG2 agenda provides. 3. All TC1 meetings will be open for current members of WG2 and its liaison organizations such as Unicode and AFII and experts who have not been able to fully participate. 4. All documents, working and final, will be made available, free of charge, to all participants and especially to WG2 members. An ftp site will be established that can contain the working papers as well as the final ECMA standard. NOTE THAT ECMA STANDARDS ARE FREE OF CHARGE!. 5. Meetings will be located in locations worldwide but there will be more ECMA meetings that there are WG2 meetings. Again, all WG2 members can participate at all the ECMA meetings, including liaison organizations. 6. A proposed development schedule is given below: Organizational Meeting 7 April 1995 (Post WG2 meeting) First technical meeting July 1995 (Post WG2 meeting) Second technical meeting September 1995 Finalize final ECMA version October 1995 Publish ECMA version December 1995 Submit to ISO to publish as January 1996 ISO standard Deliver to ISO complete 2nd edition July 1996 ISO official publication September 1996 The advantages of creating such a project within ECMA include the following: 1. It guarantees that only one ISO standard exists for the second edition of 10646. 2. Provides an international forum of WG2, industry and experts from industry for the eventual development of the second edition of 10646 which incorporates all the amendments proposed and approved by SC2 and additional technical corrections and repertoire additions developed by the ECMA TC1 group. 3. All ECMA TC1 meetings will be synchronized with SC2/WG2 meetings. 4. Avoids recent problems with getting SC2 members to vote on WG2 resolutions. Decisions within ECMA are taken at the technical meetings. The ECMA General Assembly meets twice a year (June and December) which votes then whether to accept the results of a technical committee or ask for modifications. 5. ECMA is a liaison A organization to JTC1 and can thus submit a standard for publication by ISO using the fast track process. 6. ECMA TC1 would work on developing the 2nd edition based not only on the amendments and WG2 resolutions agreed to by SC2, but also to address technical and repertoire issues that need a solution now and not next year. This message will be followed by phone calls to as many of you that can be reached to take your feedback. Best regards, Mike Ksar, ECMA TC1 member and SC2/WG2 convener Jurgen Bettels, ECMA TC1 and SC2/WG2 member --