peter@world.std.com (Peter Salus) (08/22/90)
From: peter@world.std.com (Peter Salus) P. 58 "the study group countered ... competing technologies" I think that it should be pointed out (a fortiori) that where standards in other industries have been concerned, this is precisely what has *not* happened, nor been encouraged. In fact, most industries have waited to see exactly what the industries involved have done prior to attempting a standard. It is exactly this sort of standards process which makes computer folks think of a standard as stultifying to the research and development process. A standard should be the minimal encapsulation of the platform upon which developments can be built. That way, manufacturers, developers and users know what to expect: when I buy a toaster at Sears or wherever, I expect it to be 110v and have a flat-pin plug which will go into a wall plug; I don't expect to get a 3- or 4-circular pin plug. I expect the phone I buy to be compatible with the service to my home. But I don't require all phones to be of the same shape or color, nor to have a 3x4 keypad; and I don't require all the pins on my plugs to be of the same color -- just the same distance apart. In the July/August issue of ;login: (p. 58) the Standards reports end up with a brief request concerning the ANSI X3 committees. Outside of X3J11 (C), only C++ (which is X3J16) is mentioned. It seems to me that the interest of the audience is much wider, but that few folks have ever even through about the many ANSI committees, and not even all the X3 committees. Here's a list of X3: A = Recognition X3A1 Optical Character Recognition & MICR B = Media X3B5 Digital Magnetic Tape X3B6 Instrumentation Tape X3B7 Magnetic Disks X3B8 Flexible Disk Cartridges X3B9 Paper/Forms Layout X3B10 Credit/ID Cards X3B11 Optical Digital Data Disks H & J = Languages X3H2 Database X3H3 Computer Graphics X3H4 Information Resource and Dictionary X3J1 PL/1 X3J2 BASIC X3J3 Fortran X3J4 COBOL X3J7 APT X3J9 Pascal X3J10 APL X3J11 C X3J12 DIBOL X3J13 LISP X3J14 FORTH X3J15 DATABUS X3J16 C++ K = Documentation X3K1 Computer Documentation X3K5 Vocabulary L = Data Representation X3L2 Codes and Character Sets X3L8 Data Representation S = Communication X3S3 Data Communications T & V = Systems Technology X3T1 Data Encryption X3T2 Data Interchange X3T3 Open Distributed Processing X3T5 OSI X3T9 I/O Interface X3V1 Text: Office & Publishing Systems The following committees should also be of interest: X9 Financial Services X12 Electrical Business Data Interchange Z39 National Information Standards The actual body that administers ANSI's information standards activities is the ISSB (= Information Systems Standards Board). All the X3, X9, X12, Z39, and IEEE committees come within the ISSB's ambit. Peter Volume-Number: Volume 21, Number 48
Chuck.Phillips@FtCollins.NCR.COM (Chuck.Phillips) (08/23/90)
From: Chuck.Phillips@FtCollins.NCR.COM (Chuck.Phillips)
<in describing the various ANSI groups...>
>>>>> On 22 Aug 90 14:16:23 GMT, peter@world.std.com (Peter Salus) said:
Peter> K = Documentation
Peter> X3K1 Computer Documentation
Anyone out there know the current progress and leaning of this group? Are
they planning on building on an existing publicly available standard (e.g.
SGML, LaTeX, Texinfo), or are they planning on inventing an entirely new
one?
Thanks in advance,
--
Chuck Phillips MS440
NCR Microelectronics Chuck.Phillips%FtCollins.NCR.com
2001 Danfield Ct.
Ft. Collins, CO. 80525 uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-mpd!bach!chuckp
Volume-Number: Volume 21, Number 54