Business Plan and Convener's Report
JTC1/SC22/WG17 - Programming Language Prolog
2005/08/08

Period Covered:
September 2004 - August 2005
Submitted by:
Jonathan Hodgson
Convener, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 17
St. Joseph's University,
Philadelphia. PA 19131
USA
Email: jhodgson@sju.edu <mailto:jhodgson@sju.edu> 

1.        Management Summary

1.1        JTC1/SC22/WG17 Statement of Scope

Development and maintenance of ISO/IEC standards related to programming
language Prolog
1.2        Project Report

1.2.1        Completed Projects

ISO/IEC 13211-2. Programming language Prolog-part 2 Modules
1.2.2        Projects Underway

Consideration of proposed drafts on Definite clause grammar, 
and global variables and arrays.

1.2.3        Canceled Projects

None
1.3        Cooperation and Competition

2.        Period Review

2.1        Market Requirements

Prolog is a niche language. It is extensively used by a small number of
users mainly for applications in configuration, web and CGI generation,
constraint handling and natural language. 
It is taught in a significant number of universities.

2.2        Achievements

Roger Scowen is preparing a draft on Definite Clause Grammars for potential
inclusion in Part 3.  Katsuhiko Nakamura has prepared a draft proposal on 
global variables and arrays.

2.3        Resources

WG17 meets as needed, usually once a year, and works by electronic
correspondence between meetings. Four countries are participating in
meetings: Germany, Japan, the UK, and the USA.

3.        Focus Next Work Period

An informal set of editors for the drafts is in place. 
These will be reviewed at the October meeting in Sitges, Spain.

3.1        Deliverables

1. Grammar Rules in Prolog. Roger Scowen. N171.pdf
2. A Proposal for global variables and arrays in Prolog. Katsuhiko Nakamura. Japanese WG N172.pdf

3.2        Strategies

None.
3.2.1        Risks

WG17 suffers from a decline in interest in supporting standardization
efforts.

3.2.2        Opportunities

It seems likley that Portugal is willing to take a more active role in Prolog standardization. 
It is hoped that colocating the meetings with ICLP will encourage participation.
 
3.3        Work Program Priorities

Preparation of drafts for incorporation into a CD for a third part of
ISO/IEC 13211

4.        Other Items

This section includes items that are part of the Convener's Report, but not
part of the business plan.

WG17 needs to actively seek additional membership. The current informal work 
by developers suggests that this may be possible. To this end we are colocating 
our next meeting with ICLP in Sitges, Spain in October 2005 

4.1        Action Requests at the Forthcoming Plenary

None

4.2        Schedule

None.
4.3        WG17 Meetings

4.3.1        Recent Meetings

None.
4.3.2        Future Meetings
 
October 5th 2005. Sitges, Spain