| TITLE: | Annual Report of the Convenor of WG4 to JTC1 |
| SOURCE: | James D. Mason, Convenor |
| PROJECT: | All WG4 Projects |
| PROJECT EDITOR: | All WG4 Editors |
| STATUS: | Convenor's report |
| ACTION: | For information of JTC1 |
| DATE: | 14 May 1998 |
| SUMMARY: | WG4 project status, target dates, assignments, meeting schedule |
| DISTRIBUTION: | WG4 and Liaisons |
| REFER TO: | WG4 N1971, Calendar and Programme of Work; N1972, Recommendations of the Paris Meeting |
| SUPERCEDES: | WG4 N1899, 1997 Annual Report |
| REPLY TO: | Dr. James David Mason
(ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG4 Convenor) Lockheed Martin Energy Systems Information Technology 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/wg4/wg4home.htm ftp://ftp.ornl.gov/pub/sgml/wg4/ |
Period Covered: May 1997--May 1998
Submitted by: James David Mason, ISO/IEC JTC1/WG4 Convenor
To produce standards for languages and resources for the description and processing of compound and hypermedia documents, including:
Rapporteur: Ms. Sharon Adler
Rapporteur: Dr. Yushi Komachi
Rapporteur: Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb
Rapporteur: Dr. Steve Strasen
Rapporteur: Mr. Steve Zilles
Rapporteur: Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb
WG4 presently has its original two primary projects, JTC1.18.15, Computer Languages for Processing Text, and JTC1.18.27, Description and Identification of Glyph Fonts. These are divided into subprojects, which are listed in detail in the attached Programme of Work. WG4 has also been assigned several later projects, also described below and listed in the Programme.
SGML is a completed standard for which an amendment has been published. It was reaffirmed by JTC1 balloting at its five-year reviews in 1991 and 1996. A comprehensive internal review to determine what revisions or enhancements are desired as a result of evolving user requirements during SGML's years of use is continuing. The process of finalizing DSSSL and developing a technical corrigendum for HyTime has resulted in additional information that can contribute to a potential revision.The rapid growth of the Internet, particularly the World-Wide Web, has drawn wide attention to SGML and related standards.
An intitial Technical Corrigendum (TC) to support internationalization was adopted the year before last. A TC on support for of use of SGML on the WWW has been adopted and published in the past year. WG4 has another TC in preparation and may generate more TCs or amendments in the next year.
Only one project remains under this item, Project JTC1.18.15.5.1, Guidelines for SGML Syntax-Directed Editors (ISO TR 10037), which was published as ISO/IEC TR 10037. There is no active work in this area.
Both projects in this group have resulted in ISO standards
DSSSL was published in April 1996. A Technical Corrigendum is under consideration.
SPDL was published in December 1995. No work is active in this project.
The first and third parts of this project, SDIF (ISO 9069) and Registration (ISO/IEC 9070), have been published. An amendment to ISO/IEC 9070 was approved that provides for equivalencies of structured names in SGML and ASN.1 representations of documents and makes ISO 9070 a generalized naming standard that is aligned with ISO 8824. A second edition of ISO/IEC 9070 has been published.
Techniques for Using SGML (ISO TR 9573) is being revised to add some new parts and to merge informative material that has been carried as parts of other projects. The part on public entities for mathematical and scientific publishing (including material that was in the annexes to ISO 8879) has already been published as Part 13. The part that documents the SGML-based system used by ISO Central Secretariat to produce texts of standards has also been published as Part 11. Another part on public entities for non-Latin alphabets has been balloted as Part 15 and ballot responses are being considered. A part on Using SGML for Computer to Computer Interchange (Notation Declarations for Data Encoding Standards) has been balloted as Part 9, and a final text is being prepared. The proposed Parts 1--6, tutorials on the SGML language and basic techniques, have been deferred completion of the revision process for ISO 8879:1986.
ISO/IEC 9541, Parts 1, Architecture, 2, Interchange Format, and 3, Glyph Shape Representation, and ISO/IEC 10036, Glyph and Glyph Collection Registration Procedures, have been published. A text for Part 4 of 9541, Application-Specific Requirements, has been balloted as a CD; a disposition of comments and new text are being prepared. These standards continue under maintenance. A second amendment to 9541-1 has been balloted; a disposition of comments has been prepared, and final text is being completed.
The Font Services project (JTC1.18.33) balloted a text for Part 1, which passed as a CD. A disposition of comments and a new text were prepared. However, JTC1 asked that the project be reinitiated; a new work item proposal failed for lack of countries willing to participate actively in the work. WG4 would like for JTC1 to consider some way of publishing the work that has been completed, perhaps as a TR, so that the work is not lost.
This project, developed within the U.S. National Body (though with international consultation), has been moved into JTC1. Final text has been prepared and will be delivered for publication.
A DIS text for DIS 10743 has been balloted, results are being analyzed, and a final text is being prepared.
ISO/IEC 10744 is a published standard. A TC was balloted in 1995, and a final text was published as a second edition of the standard. WG4 is processing an amendment to the standard.
This work has been replaced by the Interchange Standard for Modifiable Interactive Documents (ISMID), just approved by JTC1.
A CD text for Topic Navigation Maps (CD 13250) has been balloted, and a Final CD is being prepared.
A CD text (based on HTML 4.0) for an ISO version of HTML (CD 15445) has been balloted. The text for a Final CD is being prepared.
The project for Interchange Standard for Modifiable Interactive Documents (ISMID) has been approved, replacing the former project JTC1.18.43 (SMSL). A text has been prepared and is being sent for CD registration and processing.
WG4's major area of cooperation is with its user community. WG4 has long had a strong liaison with the International SGML Users' Group, which regularly sends a delegation to WG4's meetings. Now, with the Internet making heavy use of HTML, which is a single application of WG4's major standard. SGML, and moving towards XML, which is a potentially very large class of SGML applications, WG4 sees the need for increasing cooperation with the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C). WG4 has had informal liaison with the W3C for more than a year. If WG4 is given full SC status, we will be able to make this liaison more formal.
WG4 has also established liaison with ISO TC184/WG4, which is responsible for STEP/EXPRESS. Both SGML and STEP/EXPRESS are designed to structure collections of data, particularly documentation, and TC184/WG4 has started a new work item to harmonize the approaches of SGML and their standards.WG4 will be glad to prticipate in this work
WG4's relationship with the W3C has so far been quite good. The editors of WG4's ISO-HTML have worked closely with the W3C HTML editor to make sure that the ISO standard reflects the W3C's design. The XML effort began with heavy participation from WG4 experts, and WG4's recent work with technical corrigenda to SGML has been in large measure intended to support the requirements coming from XML. WG4 belives the W3C is ready to establish even stronger liaison. However, there is some probability that the XML process, being pushed by large corporations that do not participate in the JTC1 activities, will run away from the ISO.
WG4 has long had communication with other JTC1 groups. The Fonts project in WG4 was done in cooperation with SC2, and WG4 members contributed to ISO/IEC 10646. WG4 will hold on 22 May 1998 a Workshop on Metadata; we expect participation from SC2, SC24, and SC 32, as well as from groups like TC184 which are outside JTC1.
Since WG4 was moved to JTC1 level, WG4 has held two regular meetings; there was also one earlier meeting in the reporting period since the last meting of JTC1/SC18 but before the restructuring of JTC1. Participation has remained steady at an average of 22 experts in attendance, representing eight national bodies (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States), two external liaison bodies (SGML Users' Group and CERN). WG4 also had informal liaison with the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to develop an ISO Standard based on HTML and to support the XML class of SGML applications.
For its continuing high level of activity, WG4 can give several reasons. Aside from the long-standing general interest of WG4's projects to the publishing and technical documentation community, we have continued to benefit from the many organizational adoptions of applications of our work, including an increasing number of governmental and private bodies. We are particularly pleased at the increased presence of SGML on the Internet, notably through the World-Wide Web (WWW). On the WWW most documents are marked up in HTML, which is an application of of SGML. In the past year the W3C's XML (Extensible Markup Language), which is a class of applications of SGML, has gained wide attention and support from major vendors such as Microsoft and Sun. WG4 has worked with the W3C to ensure smooth support for XML in the SGML standard from which it is derived.
WG4 adopted fully electronic distribution of its documents several years ago. The WG4 Convenor maintains both an FTP server (ftp://ftp.ornl.gov/pub/sgml/wg4/) and a WWW server (http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/wg4/wg4home.htm) to provide access to WG4 documents. With the approval of work on an ISO version of HTML, WG4 has largely gone to HTML for distribution of documents. Some earlier documents are available in an application of SGML developed by WG4 for its own use.
WG4 has begun online discussion of projects between meetings, using a controlled distribution. WG4 expects the use of electronic processing to grow in the next year.
We expect that the next year will maintain the current momentum, sustaining the rapid development of our projects. Our continuing high level of participation this year has been gratifying.
1997--98 Meetings
| Regular meetings | |
| Barcelona, Spain | 5--9 May 1997 (as SC18/WG8, prior to JTC1 reorganization) |
| Alexandria, Virginia | 1--5 December 1997 |
| Paris, France | 11--15 May 1998 |
WG4's traditional marketplace was in technical documentation, in large-scale commercial publishing, particularly of reference works, and in several areas such as legal publishing and insurance. The SGML presence in these areas has grown steadily over the past decade. Recognition that HTML was based on SGML raised the visibility of WG4's work considerably. Recognition of the limitations of HTML led to the creation of XML, and interest in that, particularly from the area of electronic commerce, has exploded in the past year. Attendance at the conferences sponsored by the Graphic Communications Association, which have been the historical forum for SGML activities, reflects this growth of interest: the increase has become almost exponential.
On the one hand, WG4 feels good about the interest in its standards. On the other hand, the rapid growth of market demand and the growth of participation in the W3C activities rather than in JTC1, reflects a potential for the JTC1 process to become irrelevant.
In the past year, WG4 has completed a Technical Corrigendum (TC) to HyTime and another to SGML. WG4 has another TC to SGML, an amendment to HyTime, and two amendments to ISO/IEC 9541 in preparation. In addition to our completed ISO standards and technical reports, we have one project at DIS status, one that is out for CD ballot, a Technical Report in preparation, and a new project under development.
WG4's current status are reflected in its documents N1971 Programme of Work, Calendar, Liaisons and N1889 Recommendations of the Paris Meeting, available from the WG4 servers.
Most of the attention in WG4 is on SGML and related standards, particularly HyTime. At the recent Paris meeting of WG4, much of the activity was on Topic Navigation Maps (CD 13250), which is an application of HyTime. The new project on Interchange Standard for Modifiable Interactive Documents (ISMID), which replaces an earlier project, is likely to draw atention because of its connection to interactive electronic technical manuals (ITEMs), which are of interest to the community supported by TC184. ISMID is also an applcation of HyTime.
WG4 is suffering from a lack of resources in the Fonts work. We currently have a project editor, who also works in the SGML area. The failure of the recent proposal for reauthorization of the Font Services project (which had already reached CD status), is a reflection of this lack of resources. Only minimal maintenance is currently possible on this set of standards.
As the WG4 Programme of Work indicates, we have several documents that are intended for completion in the new reporting period that begins with the May 1998 meeting. Amendments to HyTime and Fonts are nearing completion. A new TC for SGML will be processed shortly. WG4 needs to provide final text for TR9575-9, as well as for the older, and almost complete standards SMDL and SGML Conformance.
WG4 has a strong preference for becoming a full SC on its own, particularly because it would allow us to establish better liaisons with organzations like the W3C and the ITEF. We also believe SC status would allow us to draw more attention to work that is currently suffering from lack of resources, such as Fonts.
WG4 believes that its move to electronic discusion between formal meetings will increase its productivity and allow quicker response to requirements coming from the W3C.
The greatest risk for WG4's projects is that the rate of change in the user community, particularly in that part represented by the W3C, will cause the effort to create and maintain standards simply to run away from the ISO process.
The world of XML presents great opportunities for SGML and related standards. The leadership of the W3C XML committee wants to keep the present alignment between XML and SGML. Making XSL (XML Style Language) a valid application of DSSSL and keeping general alignment between XLL (XML Link Language) and HyTime is also seen as desirable. The W3C seems open to having links between its work and ISO standards and perhaps even of making some of them into ISO standards. TC1 has the opportunity to encourage liaison between WG4 and the W3C by supporting the move of WG4 to full SC status.
WG4 feels that its current emphasis on SGML, HyTime, DSSSL, and work derived from them is appropriate and that it has most of the resources for that work. Nonetheless, if SC status would help by bringing in more national bodies, WG4 could make use of additional resources. Additional resources would also make it possible to do more than the current minimal level of maintenace on the Fonts standards.