Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!willett!ForthNet
From: ForthNet@willett.UUCP (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: ANS FORTH TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
Message-ID: <469.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP>
Date: 15 Feb 90 01:37:53 GMT
Organization: Latest link in the ForthNet chain.  (Pgh, PA)
Lines: 44

Category 10,  Topic 2
Message 215       Tue Feb 13, 1990
L.ZETTEL                     at 19:31 EST
 
  The following is an excerpt from a report I gave my company after coming
  back from ANS San Diego:

  ANSI X3J14
       This committee is the latest of a line of standardization
  efforts that can be traced back to 1978 or so.  It functions
  officially under ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
  auspices and rules, like any other language standardization
  committee.  There are twenty or so official members, representing
  a cross section of Forth vendors and implementors, users, and
  other interested organizations.

  January
       San Diego was the eleventh meeting of X3J14.  Around 650
  technical proposals have been submitted to the committee so far,
  and upwards of 550 have been dealt with.  Forth started out in an
  environment where machines were byte addressable, arithmetic was
  integer 16 bit twos complement, and operating systems were
  minimal to nonexistent.  The major issues left to the committee
  seem to this observer to principally involve the best ways to
  specify a standard Forth that will work in an equivalent manner
  in this and other environments.  (Under a file-oriented operating
  system with 32 bit arithmetic not necessarily twos complement,
  for instance).
       Specific issues still outstanding include (in no particular
  order):
       Integer division (round or floor? sign of remainder?)
       Specifying the size of a least addressable memory unit, character,
  and stack entry in a way that allows portability and yet does not
  unduly inhibit implementor options when dealing with a particular
  hardware architecture.
       String handling.
       Number definition.
       Bit operations.
       Floating point formats.
       Error handling.
       Requirements for multi-tasking systems.
-----
This message came from GEnie via willett through a semi-automated process.
Report problems to: 'uunet!willett!dwp' or 'willett!dwp@gateway.sei.cmu.edu'