ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG4 N1947

ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG4

Information Technology ---

Document Description Languages

TITLE: New Project Proposal for Interchange Standard for Modifiable Interactive Documents (ISMID)
SOURCE: JTC1/WG4 (with the support of the U.S. N.B.
PROJECT: Proposed New Project
PROJECT EDITOR: David Cooper, Norm Chenard
STATUS: WG4 approved proposal
ACTION: For information
DATE: 4 December 1997
DISTRIBUTION: WG4 and Liaisons
REFER TO: WG4 N 1948, 1949
REPLY TO: Dr. James David Mason
(ISO/IEC JTC1/WG4 Convenor)
Lockheed Martin Energy Systems
Information Management Services
1060 Commerce Park, M.S. 6480
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6480 U.S.A.
Telephone: +1 423 574-6973
Facsimile: +1 423 574-0004
Network: masonjd@ornl.gov
http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/wg8/wg8home.htm
ftp://ftp.ornl.gov/pub/sgml/wg8/

PROPOSAL FOR A NEW WORK ITEM

Date of presentation of proposal:
1997-08-15
Proposer:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG4 (in cooperation with NCITS V1)
Secretariat:
ANSI
ISO/IEC JTC 1 N XXXX

A proposal for a new work item shall be submitted to the secretariat of the ISO/IEC joint technical committee concerned with a copy to the ISO Central Secretariat.

Presentation of the proposal - to be completed by the proposer Guidelines for proposing and justifying a new work item are given in ISO Guide 26.

Title (subject to be covered and type of standard, e.g. terminology, method of test, performance requirements, etc.) Interchange Standard for Modifiable Interactive Documents (ISMID)
Scope (and field of application) The scope is to define a document description language that allows interchange of interactive modifiable documents using HyTime, SGML, and DSSSL. The field of application is online technical manuals that include interactive behavior that must be exchanged among development and delivery systems.
Purpose and justification - attach a separate page as annex, if necessary
An increasing number of technical manuals are being developed and delivered electronically. An important feature of these manuals is the ability to determine dynamically what information is retrieved and presented based on previous user input. There is currently no standardized language for describing this dynamic behavior. A standardized language is important in that it allows interactive documents to retain their device independence, and to be processed by a wide variety of commercial products. The requirement and design for ISMID are based on two independent research research projects sponsored over the past 3 years by government agencies in two ISO member bodies (the U.S. and Canada). ISMID merges the results of these research projects. The research responded to requests from both government and industry. Prototype implementations have been completed and widely distributed.
Programme of work

If the proposed new work item is approved , which of the following document(s) is (are) expected to be developed?
__X__ a single International Standard more than one International Standard (expected number: ........ )
____ a multi-part International Standard consisting of .......... parts
____ an amendment or amendments to the following International Standard(s) ....................................
____ a technical report , type ...........

Relevant documents to be considered
  • ISO/IEC 10744:1997, Information technology -- Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language (HyTime)
  • ISO 8879:1986, Information processing -- Text and office systems -- Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
  • ISO/IEC 10179:1992, Information technology -- Processing languages -- Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL)
Cooperation and liaison
The relevant standards on which ISMID is based are all developed by the former ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG8 (currently . ISO/IEC JTC1/WG4)
Preparatory work offered with target date(s)
See the attached draft, which is being circulated for final CD balloting in SC18.
Signature:
Will the service of a maintenance agency or registration authority be required? ..........No............
- If yes, have you identified a potential candidate? ................
- If yes, indicate name .............................................................

Are there any known requirements for coding? .........No............
-If yes, please specify on a separate page

Does the proposed standard concern known patented items? .......No............
- If yes, please provide full information in an annex

Comments and recommendations of the JTC 1 Secretariat - attach a separate page as an annex, if necessary

Comments with respect to the proposal in general, and recommendations thereon:
It is proposed to assign this new item to JTC 1/WG4

Voting on the proposal - Each P-member of the ISO/IEC joint technical committee has an obligation to vote within the time limits laid down (normally three months after the date of circulation).

Date of circulation:
YYYY-MM-DD
Closing date for voting:
YYY-MM-DD
Signature of JTC 1 Secretary:
Lisa A. Rajchel