ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG4 N1933

ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG4

Information Technology ---

Document Description Languages

Introduction

David and I have completed our detailed technical review of the NB comments following the CD 15445 ISO-HTML balloting. We have updated the CD text, and we have prepared a corresponding recommendation for further work, as requested. We would like to thank the NB experts for their comments, which have considerably improved the quality of the specification.

Actions

Following your mail dated: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 10:42:05 -0400, we have taken the initiative of working in even closer cooperation with the W3C HTML Working Group to produce the Final CD in the form of a reference to the W3C Recommentation for HTML 4.0 (Working Draft dated 17-Sep-1997, http://www.w3c.org/TR/WD-html40-970917/ "Work in progress"). This specification provides exactly the same technical specification as the updated CD, but only specifies the refinements that ISO-HTML introduces, rather than repeat the entire specification. This ensures that all ISO-HTML documents will automatically be HTML 4.0 conformant, and reduces to a minimum the possibility of technical misalignment. The resulting text is almost thirty pages shorter. We trust that the members of JTC1/WG4 will be satisfied by this good faith initiative, and will approve it.

During the process of generating the Final CD in the form of a refinement of the W3C HTML 4.0, your editors replied to an invitation from the HTML 4.0 editors to comment on HTML 4.0. Your editors' comments are available to NB experts in a supplementary document: FinalCDcomments.letter.ps and FinalCDcomments.a4.ps.

Recommendations

We recommend:

1. That we be authorized to submit the proposed Final CD text for balloting as a Final CD in the form of a reference to the W3C's specification.
2. That Final CD balloting begin as soon as possible.
3. That the following documents be considered to be the disposition of comments following the CD 15445 ballot.
   1. 1934.htm --- Our proposed disposition of the CD 15445 ballot comments. With each disposition we have included substantial parts of the original comment to make this document more readable. Note that we accept Australian comments 1 through 4 which was the condition for Australian approval.
   2. CD.letter.ps and CD.a4.ps (83 pages) --- An updated CD, taking into account the results of the harmonization meeting held in Dublin, July 13th through 15th, 1997, and the proposed disposition of comments. We have have prepared these two PostScript files for the record, but we do not propose that they be distributed.
   3. WG4 N 1935, FinalCD.letter.ps, and FinalCD.a4.ps (50 pages) --- The Final CD is technically identical to the updated CD, but is in the form of a refinement of the W3C Proposed Recommendation for HTML 4.0. This text forms the proposal for further work, and assumes that the comments in the "ISO-HTML Editor's Comments on the Referenced Text" are all accepted by the W3C. If comments are not accepted, they may give rise to further refinements in ISO-HTML

The cited documents are available by anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.cs.tcd.ie/isohtml/