Mark.Berryman%Mvb.Saic.Com (02/12/91)
[The following was submitted by me to DECUS and is submitted here for the
benefit of those readers without access to the DECUS newsletter.]
Annual Report of DECUS activities
at the
MUMPS Development Committee
(ANSI X11)
I have been the DECUS representative to the MUMPS Development Committee
(MDC) since 1984 and this past year has definitely been the most
frustrating in my experience. We released a new draft standard for
canvass in 1989, expecting to be able to address any objections and have
ANSI approval before the end of that year. There were a number of
concerns raised during the canvass but these were each resolved with the
exception of the objections raised by three individuals. Since the MDC
was unable to resolve these objections to the satisfaction of the
objectors we sent the canvass results, along with the objections and our
responses, to ANSI in late 1989. After evaluating the canvass results,
the objections, and our attempts to resolve them, ANSI approved the
standard early in 1990.
The said three individuals immediately appealed this decision to the ANSI
Board of Standards Review (BSR). Since an ANSI approved standard can only
be appealed based on the process by which it became a standard, the
appellants claimed that our procedures were flawed, that the full MDC had
not had a chance to hear and respond to all of their objections. (This
claim has no foundation in fact. I was not part of the task group charged
with responding to canvass objections yet I have a copy of all the
objections raised sitting next to me in my office.) After hearing the
case, the BSR denied the appeal and upheld the standard (although, to be
fair, they did note that there was room for improvement in our
procedures).
Two of the appellants then appealed yet again. The ANSI Appeal Board,
which hears appeals of decisions made by the BSR, upheld the BSR's
decision and we finally have a new standard as of November, 1990.
I do not know the identity of the original third appellant, but it is
worth noting that, of all the meetings that the MDC has held since the
last standard revision in 1984 and the submission of the new standard for
canvass in 1989, one of the two principal appellants never attended a
single one and the other attended only one that I can remember.
As can be seen from the above the majority of 1990 was spent defending the
merit of the new revision to the standard and the process by which it was
achieved. This does not mean, however, that we have been unable to make
much in the way of language enhancement. The MDC typically meets three
times a year and our goal is to have the next revision to the standard
ready by 1993. The following are some of the language enhancements that
are already at the MDC Type A level, awaiting inclusion into the next
standard:
$Principal - A special variable that identifies the principal device
of the MUMPS process.
$Order - A second argument has been added to $Order to allow the
operation to go in reverse.
$Name - Returns the full global reference when passed a naked
reference.
$Extract - $Extract functions are now allowed to appear on the left
hand side of the equal sign. The result can be either
the replacement or the insertion of text into the string.
Merge - A new command that allows one subtree to be copied to
another.
In addition, a means of representing complex numbers has been defined,
an exponentiation operator has been defined, $X and $Y can now be set,
and a number of other extensions exist for which I do have documentation
at the moment. There is also much work being done to bind MUMPS to
other standards such as X-windows, TCP-IP, ANSI X3.64, GKS, SQL, etc.
We also expect to have a standard form of error handling. 1991 looks to
be a very productive year.
The upcoming schedule for MDC meetings is:
May 30 - June 2, 1991 New Orleans, LA
October 22 - 25, 1991 St. Louis, MO
June 11 - 14, 1992 Phoenix, AZ
The address and telephone number of our chairman is:
Thomas Salander
Connections Group, LTD.
3629 Kimble Rd.
Baltimore, MD 21218
(301) 889-0447
--
Hokey We are Space Guys. We know what we are doing.