Subject: RE: Background on DSSSL From: "Mason, James David (MXM) " <MXM@xxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 15:54:49 -0400 |
DSSSL Folks: Ralph has done a good job with summarizing how DSSSL came to be. This spurs me on to raise a question that has been hanging around my mind for several weeks: ISO standards are not forever. They have to be reaffirmed every 5 years. For DSSSL, that review will happen in 2001. If there is no support for ISO 10179:1996 *in the standards community*, it will not be reaffirmed. As Ralph observed, all the key people on the DSSSL project have now moved to the XSL project. ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 has nobody working on DSSSL, though some of the HyTime people have (because of the events Ralph summarized) a very strong awareness of what's in DSSSL. However, without a project editor in SC34 and without national standards bodies that are willing to say that DSSSL is in use in their countries, the standard will be withdrawn. We know that there is a small but dedicated community using DSSSL. That community is probably not plugged in to the international standards process and so the national bodies won't be aware that there is a user community. Could DSSSL survive without ISO/IEC approval? I don't see why not. Other things (e.g., PERL) exist on community support without the intervention of the formal standards process. However, if having the ISO/IEC "seal of approval" on your language is important to you, then you ought to think of how you can go about maintaining the standard. At the present, SC34 national members include Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK, and USA. We would welcome additional national bodies, and all the current national bodies would welcome additional participants. If you are interested in keeping DSSSL an ISO standard, I'd be glad to discuss how the process works. Ralph has also been part of the process and would be willing, I'm sure, to advise you. You could also contact Dr. Yushi Komachi (komachi@xxxxxxxxxxxx), who is convenor of SC34/WG2, the group immediately responsible for DSSSL. Jim Mason James D. Mason, Ph.D. Chairman, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 SAIC Oak Ridge, TN 423 574 6973 mxm@xxxxxxxx DSSSList info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist
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