J4/00-0482
IT/00-0433

J4 Annual Report

Covering the Period from  September 1999 to June 2000

Title of NCITS Subgroup: J4

Informal Description of Work: Development and maintenance of COBOL programming language

1. Executive Summary

The last COBOL revision was approved in 1985. Since then, the COBOL language was extended by a 1989 amendment that added intrinsic functions. Corrections were made by a 1993 amendment.

A revision of the ISO COBOL standard is being developed under national terms of reference which includes support for:

A Committee Draft was forwarded for comment in September 1996. The U. S. public review on the CD resulted in 31 responses containing a total of 662 comments. J4 evaluated and combined these comments to form the U. S. position. SC22 received responses containing a total of 543 comments. J4 developed recommendations to SC22/WG4 for the responses to these comments. Responses have been  sent to both SC22 and the U. S. commenters. After making the changes resulting from the resolution of these comments, J4 and WG4 reviewed the draft before submitting it as a Final CD. One hundred sixteen  comment documents with over 1800 individual comments were received during the internal review. J4 addressed these comments and in January 2000, J4 and WG4 held another internal review before submitting the Final CD.  This review resulted in 77 comment documents.  J4 and WG4 resolved the major issues during their co-located meeting in May 2000.  The remaining comments will be resolved by J4 during the next three meetings.  The document will be submitted as an FCD in January 2001.

Interpretations of the 1985 standard have been published in COBOL Information Bulletin 24 (CIB-24), CIB-25, CIB-26, CIB-27 and CIB-28. CIB-29 is being developed. Work on developing the new standard has been given priority over interpretation of the 1985 standard, so no interpretations were approved during this reporting period.

Membership went up to thirteen and then back down to twelve during this reporting period.

The schedule for the revision was revised this year because of the number of comments received during the second internal review of the document.

2. Projects

Project 21-D

a. Title: COBOL Information Bulletins (CIBs)

b. Target dates - Not applicable since CIBs are published on an as needed basis.

c. Project Description.

As interpretations are approved by J4, they are bundled into groups for publishing.

d. Publications during Past Year: None.

e. Statement of Progress and Current Status

The draft CIB-29 contains 9 interpretations at this time. J4 and WG4 are focusing on the revision and giving a lower priority to interpretations.

The status of the corresponding international project 22.01.01 has not changed during this reporting period.

Project 22-RI

a. Title: Programming Language COBOL

b. Target dates

Original date: 1995

Current date: October 1996

c. Project Description.

A revision of the ISO COBOL standard is being developed under national terms of reference which will add support for national character handling, exception handling, data validation, screen handling, object-orientation, enhanced interlanguage calling, standard arithmetic, boolean data-items, pointers, floating-point, native binary data types, cultural conventions and other needed features.

d. Publications during Past Year: None.

e. Statement of Progress and Current Status

A Committee Draft was forwarded for comment in September 1996. The U. S. public review on the CD resulted in 31 responses containing a total of 662 comments. J4 evaluated and combined these comments to form the U. S. position. SC22 received responses containing a total of 543 comments. J4 developed recommendations to SC22/WG4 for the responses to these comments. Responses have been  sent to both SC22 and the U. S. commenters. After making the changes resulting from the resolution of these comments, J4 and WG4 reviewed the draft before submitting it as a Final CD. One hundred sixteen  comment documents with over 1800 individual comments were received during the internal review. J4 addressed these comments and in January 2000, J4 and WG4 held another internal review before submitting the Final CD.  This review resulted in 77 comment documents.  J4 and WG4 resolved the major issues during their co-located meeting in May 2000.  The remaining comments will be resolved by J4 during the next three meetings.  The document will be submitted as an FCD in January 2001.

The schedule of the corresponding international project 22.01.07 is as follows:

Stage Description Date
3.1 Initiate Final CD 2/2001
4.1 Initiate DIS 6/2002
5.0 IS 12/2002
 

Project 585-M

a. Title: Addendum to ANSI X3.23-1985, Programming Language - Intrinsic Function Module for COBOL

b. Target dates: Not applicable

c. Project Description.

This project, which was completed in 1989, added the Intrinsic Function Module to the COBOL programming language.

d. Publications during Past Year: None.

e. Statement of Progress and Current Status:

This addendum will be included in the revised COBOL standard.

Project 640-M

a. Title: Correction Addendum to ANSI X3.23-1985 for Programming Language COBOL

b. Target dates: Not applicable.

c. Project Description.

This amendment corrects errors and resolves ambiguities in ANSI X3.23-1985, Programming Language COBOL.

d. Publications during Past Year: None.

e. Statement of Progress and Current Status:

This addendum will be included in the revised COBOL standard.

3. Committee Activities

a. Previous Year's Meetings

M-221 September 13-18 1999 - Minneapolis, Minnesota
M-222 November 14-19 1999  - San Diego, California
M-223 January 17-28 2000 - San Diego, California
M-224 March 27-30, 2000 - Las Vegas, Nevada
M-225 May 17-19, 24-25 - Newbury, Berkshire, England

b. Next Year's Planned Meetings

M-226 July 23-29, 2000 - Burbank, California
M-227 October 2-6, 2000 - Chicago, Illinois
M-228 December 3-9, 2000 - Carmel, California
M-229 February 11-17, 2001 - Las Vegas, Nevada
M-230 April 22-28, 2001 - Roseville, California
M-231 June 3-9, 2001 - Indianapolis, Indiana
M-232 July 23 - August 3, 2001
M-233 September 9-15, 2001
M-234 November 1-10, 2001
 

c. Officers

Chair:
Don Schricker (training: 11/18/97)
MERANT
189 Georgetown Road
Boxford, MA 01921
Tel: 978 887-6692
Fax: 720-221-1731
email: doncobol@mediaone.net

International Rep:
Barry Tauber (training 3/29/99)
Victor Consulting
42 Cumberland Dr
Lincolnshire, IL 60069
Tel: (847) 267-8011
email: btauber@interaccess.com

Vocabulary Rep & treasurer: -- last year
John Brieschke (no training necessary)
Unisys Corp. M.S. 4872
P.O. Box 64942
St. Paul, MN 55164
Tel: (612) 635-5291
Fax: (612) 635-5544
email: John.Brieschke@unisys.com

Treasurer - next year
Dennis Booth (no training necessary)
EDS
MS 1204
1401 E Hoffer
Kokomo, IN 46902
765-451-4264
765-451-4108
dennis.booth@eds.com

Technical Editor: & Secretary
Donald F. Nelson
Compaq Computer Corp
M.S. CAC01-02
19333 Vallco Pkwy
Cupertino, CA 95014-2599
email: donald.nelson@compaq.com

d. Membership

provided by NCITS Secretariat

e. Liaison Activities

The active liaisons this year were SC22/WG4, SC22/WG20 and Interex SIGCOBOL.

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG4 COBOL

WG4 has responsibility for the ISO COBOL standard. J4 develops this standard under national terms of reference. J4 members are also members of WG4. The convenor of WG4 and the chair of J4 work closely in order to synchronize schedules.

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG20 Internationalization

Since the creation of WG20, J4 has had liaison in order to incorporate their work into future COBOL standards.

Interex SIGCOBOL

Representatives from Interex SIGCOBOL, who are COBOL users, have attended most of the J4 meetings during the reporting period. Their input on how new features of the language would be used has been invaluable in shaping the language.

f. Administrative Matters of Note

J4 distributes its documents via the web.  One member has requested paper copies, so J4 is conducting a letter ballot on instituting a subscription service, by which the NCITS secretariat would print and distribute documents, for a fee, to those who request them.

It is anticipated that there will be active opposition to the next standard.  This may present a challenge.

g. Procedural Matters of Note

There were no changes made to the J4 internal procedures during the reporting period.

h. Recommendations

None

i. Market Impact

Interest is growing now that approval is getting closer.

Many COBOL vendors have implemented some of the features in the draft standard.

4. Anticipated Projects

SC22/WG4 has requested that J4 begin work on a technical report on finalizers and related object oriented extensions.

After the draft is submitted as a Final Committee Draft, J4 plans to begin work on a Technical Report for an OO Class Library.

5. Future Trends in Area of Standardization

None.

Attachment 1 - Committee Projects:

provided by the NCITS Secretariat

Attachment 2 - Internal Procedures

There has been no change to the internal procedures during this reporting period.

Attachment 3 - Financial Statement

This report covers J4 meetings 221-224 (September 1999 - March 2000)

Note that there are 3 separate funds maintained and described below.

1. J4
 
Beginning Balance  $ 4345.06
Receipts  $ 5800.00
Total  $10145.06
Receivables Outstanding  $ 250.00 (COBOL Research Group, Dec. 1996 meeting)
Total Disbursements  $ 4664.42
Debts outstanding    0.00
Current Balance  $ 5480.64
2. J4/TAG
 
Beginning Balance $150.79
Receipts  $ 0.00
Total $150.79
Receivables Outstanding  0
Total Disbursements 0
Debts outstanding  0
Current Balance  $150.79
3. J4 Technical Editor's Fund

This fund pays for that portion of our project editor work that has been subcontracted out under committee direction. The funding was raised by voluntary contributions from member companies and other interested parties.
 
Beginning Balance  $5220.65
Receipts  0
Total  $5220.65
Receivables Outstanding  0
Total Disbursements  $0
Debts outstanding  0
Current Balance  $5220.65 ($5,145.65 is held by NCITS and $75.00 is held by J4)