[comp.lang.prolog] ANSI Standard Prolog

jfl@mullauna.cs.mu.OZ.AU (John Lenarcic) (05/12/91)

Does anyone know of any articles/papers dealing with the proposed
ANSI Standard Prolog ?
Also, does anyone know the name ( and e-mail address ) of the
Chairperson of the ANSI Standard Prolog committee ?
Your help will be most appreciated. Many thanks.

			John Lenarcic

_________________________________________________________________
Postal Address:		Department of Computer Science,
			University of Melbourne,
			Parkville, Victoria 3052
			AUSTRALIA

E-mail Address:		jfl@munmurra.cs.mu.OZ.AU

dave@quintus.UUCP (David Bowen) (05/30/91)

In article <jfl.674029456@mullauna> jfl@mullauna.cs.mu.OZ.AU (John Lenarcic) writes:
>
>Does anyone know of any articles/papers dealing with the proposed
>ANSI Standard Prolog ?
>Also, does anyone know the name ( and e-mail address ) of the
>Chairperson of the ANSI Standard Prolog committee ?
>Your help will be most appreciated. Many thanks.

I am the Chairperson of X3J17 which is the Technical Committee working
towards an ANSI standard for Prolog.  We are working closely with the
corresponding ISO (International Standards Organization) committee, WG17,
which has been working on a Prolog standard for some years now.  Our
hope is that we can influence WG17 to produce a standard which we can
adopt as an ANSI standard, since there would be nothing to be gained by
having incompatible ISO and ANSI Prolog standards.

People outside the U.S.A. who would like to know more about the
standardization effort should contact the convenor of WG17:

    Roger Scowen
    National Physical Laboratory
    Teddington
    Middlesex
    U.K. TW11 0LW

    Phone:  +44 81 943 6956
    Fax:    +44 81 977 7091
    E-mail: rss@seg.npl.co.uk

WG17 has produced a series of working draft standards.  The very latest
one is called WG17 N72 and is due to be published about now.  Contact Roger
Scowen if you want to get a copy.

Within the U.S.A. we need more people to participate in X3J17.  We are only
a small group at present, perhaps because many people are afraid of being
publicly lambasted by Richard O'Keefe if they participate.  Anyone who cares
about the future of Prolog and thinks that they might like to get involved
should contact me for further information.  My address is:

    David Bowen
    Quintus Corporation
    2100 Geng Rd
    Palo Alto
    CA 94303
    U.S.A.

    Phone:  415-813-3800
    Fax:    415-494-7608
    E-mail: dbowen@quintus.com

tja@mullauna.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Tim ARNOLD) (05/31/91)

dave@quintus.UUCP (David Bowen) writes:

[in reply about standardizing Prolog]
>Within the U.S.A. we need more people to participate in X3J17.  We are only
>a small group at present, perhaps because many people are afraid of being
>publicly lambasted by Richard O'Keefe if they participate.  

I think your being a little unfair to ok. He has some genuine concerns about
some of your decisions and his expertise and attention to detail should be
considered as being positive input aimed at improving the lot of Prolog
programmers rather than destroying the aim which I'm sure he supports even
if he disagrees with the conclusions.

Academia is all about presenting your well reasoned opinions and opening them
up for peer criticism. Throw away the peer criticism and you get much less
excellence.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Arnold        | Law/Science (Computer Science)   |  simil iustus
tja@cs.mu.oz.AU   | The University of Melbourne      |  et peccator
=============================================================================

jwoehr@isis.cs.du.edu (Jack J. Woehr) (06/04/91)

In article <1532@quintus.UUCP> dbowen@quintus.com (David Bowen) writes:

>
>Within the U.S.A. we need more people to participate in X3J17.  We are only
>a small group at present, perhaps because many people are afraid of being
>publicly lambasted by Richard O'Keefe if they participate.  Anyone who cares
>about the future of Prolog and thinks that they might like to get involved
>should contact me for further information.  My address is:

	David, I just had to smile because I have been serving on X3J14
for ANS Forth for a year and a half now, and the controversy in *our*
community has stopped a little bit shy of death threats :-) Good luck to
you, David, and to X3J17, and also to your worthy adversary, Richard O'Keefe,
whose postings I have read and enjoyed lo these many years.

a bit sh
--
 # jax@well.{UUCP,sf.ca.us}  # #  Member, # # Chapter Coordinator,  #
 # isis.du.edu!koscej!jax    # # X3J14 TC # #  Forth Interest Group #
 # JAX on GEnie              # # for ANS  # #   P.O. Box 8231       #
 # SYSOP RCFB (303) 278-0364 # #  Forth   # #    San Jose CA 95155  #

jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) (06/15/91)

In article <1532@quintus.UUCP> dbowen@quintus.com (David Bowen) writes:
>Within the U.S.A. we need more people to participate in X3J17.  We are only
>a small group at present, perhaps because many people are afraid of being
>publicly lambasted by Richard O'Keefe if they participate. 

The US gets only one vote on an ISO standard.  The only way to stop a
bad standard is to get people in other countries to get their national
member bodies to vote against it.  However, X3J17 may be able to
influence the standard before it gets to that point.  Richard's
complaints about the possible standard (is that what they're about?)
should not cause anyone to avoid X3J17.