osd@alice.UUCP (12/03/86)
From: Orlando Sotomayor-Diaz (The Moderator) <cbosgd!std-c>
mod.std.c Digest Tue, 25 Nov 86 Volume 17 : Issue 1
Today's Topics:
ANSI C is now in a formal comment period
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Date: Mon, 24 Nov 86 16:31:42 PST
From: ihnp4!hoptoad!gnu (John Gilmore)
Subject: ANSI C is now in a formal comment period
To: cbosgd!std-c
As of November 7th, ANSI C (X3J11) is up for Formal Public Review.
It is now classified as a Draft Proposed American National Standard
(dpANS).
I am surprised that I didn't see any announcement of this on the net,
though perhaps I and my friends missed it.
Anyway, this means that they think they are close to done with it.
They published the dpANS on October 1, 1986, and you have until March
7th, 1987 to comment (though comments received after mid-January will
get less consideration). You can get a copy of the dpANS from:
Global Engineering Documents
1-800-854-7179
Standard Designation #X3-159-198X "Programming Language C"
It costs $65 (CBEMA used to charge $30, but they don't
stock it any more)
They can bill you, or take MasterRace, Vice-a, or American Excess.
Here is how the formal review process works. This is excerpted from
ANSI document "X3/SD-2" of May 1978. To understand it, you need to
know that there are many committees involved:
X3J11 the technical people who actually wrote the standard
TC Technical Committee, same as X3J11
X3 a committee that oversees all computer language
standards -- not writing them, but reviewing them.
[I would like to know who is on this committee and how
you get on to it.]
BSR ANSI Board of Standards Review -- a watchdog to make
sure that due process has been followed
Secretariat Not a committee, but an office in charge
of coordinating the standards review process. The
X3 Secretariat is "CBEMA", the Computer and Business
Equipment Manufacturers Association. It is funded by
computer manufacturers and exists to administer this
kind of stuff.
Staff seems to refer to the staff at the Secretariat
ANSI American National Standards Institute, the people
who actually publish these standards
Once X3J11 decides they like their draft standard, they ask to publish
it for formal public review. If there are any negative comments, X3
must approve the public review by a majority vote. The public reviews
it, sends in their flames and flowers. X3J11 tries to work out the
flames, and either gets the commenter to withdraw the flame, or
provides a "response" to it. All the correspondence gets sent to X3,
which tries to read it all and figure out whether X3J11 did a good
enough job. [The Pascal draft standard got almost 500 pages of
comments, which were distributed on microfiche.] Overlapping with the
last 6 weeks of the public comment period, X3 members vote by mail. If
there are ANY negative votes by X3 members, or un-withdrawn flames from
the public, X3J11 must try to fix the standard. If they change it a
lot, it goes back for another public review. If not, they submit their
changes and new responses to X3 again, and the X3 members have 30 days
to change their vote. If at the end of the 30 days, 2/3 of X3 members
now vote yes, the standard is approved. It gets passed to the ANSI
BSR, which tries to figure out whether due process was used in X3's
approving the standard, or whether the public has been railroaded. If
the BSR likes the process, ANSI publishes it as a real live standard.
Any member of X3 can appeal to the BSR to overturn X3's approval
(presumably indicating that there is not consensus).
So, if the committee has been blithely ignoring your comments on the net,
now's the time to get the current draft and send in *formal* comments
via Pony Express. I would appreciate it if someone on the Committee can
post exactly how and where to send formal comments; I have a few things
I want to say...
John Gilmore
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End of mod.std.c Digest - Tue, 25 Nov 86 13:56:14 EST
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Orlando Sotomayor-Diaz AT&T Bell Laboratories 201-949-1532
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