!standard 3.1                                    07-01-24  SI99-0026-1/01
!class presentation
!status work item 07-01-24
!status received 07-01-24
!priority High
!difficulty Easy
!subject Baseline version of ASIS Standard

!summary

Many small editorial changes were made to create the baseline version of the
ASIS standard document. The "baseline" version is the basis for the revision;
we'll apply changes to it to create the new Standard.

!question

What changes were required to change the ASIS 99 standard into the base line for
the ASIS revision?

!recommendation

(See summary.)

!wording

The basic idea was to change the standard into the form of descriptive definitions
of a set of functions and packages. Each change is indicated in versions of the
standard that show changes unless otherwise noted below. (The changes are indicated
separately from changes needed to accomplish the revision.) The following changes
were accomplished:

(1) Non-normative subparts of the clauses (labeled AN, CR, ER) were removed
from the standard and placed into a parallel document, the AASIS.

(2) The body of the standard was changed from the form of comments into ordinary
text. The Implementation Permissions and Implementation Requirements sections
were given headers similar to those in the Ada Standard (ISO/IEC 8652:1995).
Some text was reordered. These changes are not marked as changes in versions
of the Standard that show changes.

(3) Each package definition was headed with a descriptive introduction of the form:

The library package <<something>> shall exist. The package shall provide
interfaces equivalent to those described in the following subclauses.

(4) Private parts and their description was removed from the standard.

(5) Sentence fragments were converted into full sentences by adding necessary
wording.

(6) Punctuation was added, deleted, or corrected as necessary. References to
Ada keywords were boldfaced and quote marks deleted. Defining occurrences of
terms are put into italics, as in the Ada standard. These changes are not
marked as changes in versions of the Standard that show changes.

(7) Clause names were made unique via the additional of parenthetical type
descriptions.

(8) Where code elements were directly commented, the description of these
comments were converted into descriptive text. (For example, in 3.9.2.)

(9) Redundant text (which repeats something said elsewhere in the Standard,
usually in the same subclause) are removed. (For example, in 3.12.4).

!discussion

These changes make the standard far more readable and remove extraneous material.

!appendix

From: Minutes of Albuquerque ARG meeting

Randy worries that there are very many simple (almost mechanical) changes made
to the original ASIS Standard to create the new one. These are mostly marked as
changes for “version 1” of the document [the “baseline” version of the Standard];
the functional changes that we’ll make will be marked as changes for “version 2”
of the document. That means that they’ll be in different colors [in versions that
show changes - ED], and that should make it easier to look only at things that
are important. But he didn’t mark spacing, formatting, and punctuation changes
(it’s just too much work, and too trivial).

Do we need to record what changes where made to convert the document into its
new format? A detailed record would take weeks to produce, and it’s hardly likely
anyone would want to read it anyway. The group feels that it is important to have
a simple record of these changes. It is suggested that Randy create a simple SI
that describes in very general terms what reformatting and editorial changes were
made to the Standard as part of its format conversion. Randy takes an action item
to do this.

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