[Cobolforgcc-devel] Next (post 2002) ISO COBOL Standard

[William M. K. <wm...@ix...>]

To: comp.lang.cobol - and others:

As a result of the recent J4 and WG4 meetings (and "Future of COBOL"
workshop), there is now a "definitive" list of what is INTENDED to be in =
(or
at least investigated for) the next ISO COBOL Standard - now "scheduled" =
for
2008.

The following are the relevant agenda items from:

   http://www.cobolportal.com/j4/files/03-0168.doc

"17.       Develop ISO 1989:2008 - must do items
            17.1      @Dynamic tables (Piggott+Karlin/Nutsford)
            17.2      @Function pointers (Bennett)
            17.3      @Variable length data items
(Piggott+Ebbinkhuijsen/Nutsford)
            17.4      @Function pointers (Bennett)
            17.5      @Increase size limit on non-numeric literals
(Ebbinkhuijsen)
            17.6      @Locale on upper and lower case functions =
(Bennett)
            17.7      @Structured constants (Stevens)
            17.8      @Pipes (Lanam+Klink)
            17.9      @Increase minimum maxima for record locks
(Grealish+Ebbinkhuijsen)
            17.10    @Function for current date in ISO-standard format
(Ebbinkhuijsen+Grealish)
            17.11    03-0166 - Eliminate Cryptic Ref to "Hardware" in =
ACCEPT
Rules (Stevens)
            17.12    03-0167 - Allow <> As Synonym for NOT EQUAL TO
(Stevens)
            17.13    @PAGE clause corrections (00-0581) (?Bennett)
            17.14    @Clarification of 8.4.1.1, Qualification, =
especially
rule 4 (????)

18.       Develop ISO 1989:2008 - investigate and include if feasible in =
the
time frame
            18.1      @Asynchronous processing (?Lanam?)
            18.2      @Command line and environment variables (Klink)
            18.3      @Method overloading (Karlin)"

For some "background" on how both J4 and WG4 "ranked" features for this =
next
revision, see:

     http://www.cobolportal.com/j4/files/s16.doc

Also expected to be "rolled into"  the 2008 ISO COBOL Standard are the
following "features" for which ISO TR (Technical Reports) will be =
available
in ADVANCE of 2008:

 - Finalizer (for Objects) - (this TR has already been approved by JTC1)
 -  native syntax for XML support
        schedule at: http://www.cobolportal.com/j4/files/03-0161.doc
 - collection classes
        schedule at: http://www.cobolportal.com/j4/files/03-0162.doc

To see the "approved" (well the final draft of what was approved) copy =
of
the FINALLIZER TR, go to:

      http://www.cobolportal.com/j4/files/03-0046.doc

Related to the issue of "native syntax for XML support", I (personally)
found the following statement from:

     http://www.cobolportal.com/j4/files/03-0117.doc

to be particularlly interesting:

"15.1     @02-0246 - XML classes (Schricker)
J4 considers at this time that native syntax for XML is of greater use =
to
the general COBOL community than an XML class library.  J4 will consider =
an
XML class library at a later date."

    ***

Finally, it should be noted that just because an item from S-16 (see =
above)
is NOT scheduled for the 2008 ISO Standard, this does NOT mean that it =
won't
be considered for a "future" Standard.


--=20
Bill Klein
 wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com