Background on ISO's 1987 Acceptance of Ada as an International Standard On March 12, 1987, the International Standardization Organization's (ISO's) Central Secretariat unanimously approved Draft International Standard 8652; the standard would be known as ISO/8652:1987, Programming Languages -- Ada. This standard was the same as had been previously accepted in 1983 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). (On February 15, 1995, the ISO published the latest version of the Ada standard: ISO/IEC 8652:1995. Background on the revision process is given in a number of documents available through the Ada Information Clearinghouse. Contact the AdaIC for details.) Following is a description of events leading up to the 1987 ISO acceptance. Interest in 1979 Interest in recommending Ada for international standardization arose as early as 1979, a year before Ada became a Miltary Standard (MIL-STD-1815), and four years before it became an ANSI standard (ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A). In September 1980, ANSI responded to this interest in its capacity as the member body representing the U.S. to the ISO. At that time, ANSI submitted Ada as a new work item to the ISO's Technical Committee 97 (ISO/TC 97) using the July 1, 1980, edition of the Ada Programming Language Reference Manual as the proposed standard document. Due to procedural difficulties, the letter ballot sent out in September 1980 remained open until May 1981. The responses to the ballot were all supportive, as were additional comments submitted by a few of the member body countries. This ballot qualified Ada as a new work item and assigned Ada to Subcommittee 5 (ISO/TC 97/SC 5). The 1981 Experts Group meeting Along with the ballot, the U.S. had proposed the formation of an Ada Experts Group and offered to host its first meeting on September 24-25, 1981, in Washington, D.C. The DoD had asked ANSI to petition ISO to authorize this Experts Group meeting, at which the international community could be given a voice in the consideration of language issues during the time ANSI was engaged in the domestic processing of Ada as a voluntary U.S. ANSI Standard. Dr. Larry Druffel, Director of the Ada Joint Program Office, was named convenor of this Ada Experts Group meeting. The meeting was held as scheduled, and language issues as well as various Ada-related international activities were discussed. At the close of the meeting, Dr. Druffel reminded the group that he had no current authority from SC5 to schedule further meetings. However, he indicated that he would reconvene this group after the report of the first meeting was presented to SC5, and SC5 then gave him an official ISO designation. He suggested that May or June 1982 would be appropriate since it was anticipated that an editorial draft of the ANSI Standard document would be available at that time. Questions about the trademark * Unfortunately, the results of parallel activities conducted during 1981 precluded a second meeting of this Ada Experts Group. Although willing to support work towards the international standardization of Ada, some member countries had concerns about and requested clarification of the implications of the U.S. DoD's requirements for DoD-validated compilers and a trademarked Ada. On December 31, 1981, the DoD had received a trademark registration for the term "Ada". Correspondence, discussions, and clarifications on the Ada trademark requirements continued from 1981 into 1983. In December 1983, this issue was finally resolved to ISO's satisfaction. The Director of AJPO, Dr. Robert Mathis, reported that the DoD, as owner of the trademark, had agreed to allow international standardization of Ada to proceed under that name; the DoD had also agreed to the ISO's final standard being named Ada. On January 13, 1984, ISO/TC 97 approved confirmation of Project 97.5.14, work toward international standardization of Ada. * In 1987, the trademark was allowed to lapse. Since then, DoD has employed a "certification mark" -- which is granted only to validated compilers. Continuing progress The original Ada Experts Group was expanded and became ISO Working Group 14 (ISO/TC 97/SC 5/WG 14). Dr. Mathis, the convenor, scheduled the first meeting for April 10-11, 1984, in Paris, France. Many additional meetings were later held in Brussels, the United States, Scotland, etc. Also in 1984, the Ada Programming Language Reference Manual, ANSI/MIL-STD-1815A-1983, was registered with ISO as document ISO/TC 97/SC 5 N759. On July 24, 1984, SC5 sent out letter ballots to all member bodies to vote on the registration of N759 as an ISO Draft Proposal (DP). Document N759 was approved unanimously by member countries to be registered as a DP, as announced by SC5 on September 18, 1984. Document N759 became ISO Draft Proposal 8652 (DP8652). In the meantime, ISO/TC 97 was undergoing an internal structural change. The Subcommittee that had been responsible for the Ada Project, SC5, was subdivided into two groups: SC21-Information Retrieval, Transfer and Management of OSI; and SC22-Programming Languages and Applications Environments. Ada was assigned to SC22 and was renumbered as ISO/TC 97/SC 22/WG 9. In addition, the Secretariat function for SC22 was assumed by Canada, whereas ANSI, USA, had provided that function for SC5. On January 15, 1985, the new SC22 Secretariat, Mr. Cote, circulated a letter ballot to SC22 member bodies to vote on registration of DP8652 as a Draft International Standard (DIS). The closing date for ballots was April 15, 1985. The ballot approved Ada as a Draft International Standard. ISO/DIS 8652 Programming Language-Ada was scheduled to be circulated for TC 97 member body vote during the second week of January 1986. The ballot would remain open for six months. Working Group 9 The main goal of WG 9 was to propose an Ada Programming Language Reference Manual to the ISO community and assist it through the process of becoming the International Standard for Ada. Since becoming an ANSI Standard in 1983, the Ada Programming Language Reference Manual had been (and still was) widely commented upon. These comments were all forwarded to the WG 9, which reviewed them and found none so major as to require a rewrite of the manual at this time. In its Brussels meeting, WG 9 passed the following resolution concerning the rewrite of the Ada Programming Language Reference manual: "ISO/TC 97/SC 5/WG 14 assigns high priority to resolving issues of interpretation of the existing Working Document by the end of 1986. Furthermore, it agrees to defer consideration of proposals for major changes until after that time. Meanwhile, it agrees to liaison with other Ada related activities for the purpose of identifying potential improvements to the language." In order to provide a mechanism whereby it could review all incoming comments in a consistent manner, WG 9 established a Language Maintenance Committee (Resolution 6, Brussels): "ISO/TC 97/SC 5/WG 14 agrees that there should be a single Ada Language Maintenance Committee, which shall serve and coordinate the interests of international and domestic standards maintenance. The committee shall accept comments from all sources and provide technical input to the maintenance of the Ada programming language. WG 14 instructs its convenor to coordinate the establishment of such a committee." As issues were raised by implementers and users, the Language Maintenance Committee (LMC) would attempt to resolve them. Resulting interpretations of the standard -- Ada Commentaries -- would be passed to WG 9. Continuing cooperation At the February 24, 1986, meeting in Los Angeles (Meeting No. 7), WG 9 passed a resolution concerning language Commentaries. In it, WG 9 reaffirmed its desire to meet with the Ada Board -- the U.S. Federal advisory board concerned with Ada -- so that they could jointly discuss language issues to the largest extent possible. That resolution was an indication of the close interaction between the international and national standards efforts, and such cooperation has continued. Up until 1987, the AJPO maintained a Language Maintenance Panel (LMP), whose membership was the same as the ISO's LMC, but whose task was to maintain the ANSI Ada standard. In 1987, the AJPO abolished the LMP as a separate structure, and WG 9 reconsituted the LMC as the Ada Rapporteur Group (ARG). Thereafter, the ARG would be the group that originates Ada Commentaries. To meet ISO requirements, Ada Commentaries had to be approved by WG 9; to meet ANSI requirements, they had to be approved by the Director of the AJPO. With the advent of Ada 95, the exact processes may be different. ********************** Flyer P050-0495b iso-stat.txt The Ada Information Clearinghouse maintains an electronic copy of this document on the AdaIC's Internet host: sw-eng.falls-church.va.us The views, opinions, and findings contained in this report are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Agency position, policy, or decision, unless so designated by other official documentation. Ada Information Clearinghouse (AdaIC) P.O. Box 1866 Falls Church, VA 22041 Phone: 800/232-4211 or 703/681-2466 Fax: 703/681-2869 E-mail: adainfo@sw-eng.falls-church.va.us The AdaIC is sponsored by the Defense Information Systems Agency's Ada Joint Program Office (DOD/DISA/JIEO/CFSW/AJPO), and operated by IIT Research Institute.