Forgive me if this is an FAQ, but I haven't been monitoring this group
and I need an answer quickly...

Can someone please tell me:

1.  What is the official name of the C++ standard that is being developed
    (e.g. ANSI X1234.567 or something like that).

2.  The status of the standard, and any informed estimates of when it might
    be formally adopted.

--
Conrad Kimball  | Unix Server Tech Services, Boeing Computer Services
cek@sdc.boeing.com | P.O. Box 24346, MS 7A-35
(206) 865-6410  | Seattle, WA  98124-0346

> 1.  What is the official name of the C++ standard that is being developed
>     (e.g. ANSI X1234.567 or something like that).

First, let's look at the story for the C (not C++) language, for some
real examples of the names of these kinds of things.  The official name
of the international standard for C is something like "ISO 9899".  The
name of the committee that developed that standard is (I believe)
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22/WG14.  The official name of the ANSI standard for C
is "ANSI X3.1989".  The name of the committee that developed that
standard is ANSI X3J11.  Important points to note are (1) neither
standard was named until after it existed; and (2) the name of the
standard is not particularly related to the name of the committee
that produced that standard.

Now, back to C++.  The C++ standard, since it does not yet exist, has
no name.  The *committee* that is working on a future standard has an
official name which is an expansion of the following:
 ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22/WG21
This is an international committee.  (I'm not up on exactly what all of
the letters stand for.  "J" stands for "Joint".  :-)

One of the national member bodies of this committee represents the US.
That member body is largely, but not exactly the same as the ANSI
committee that you may have been thinking of; its name is ANSI X3J16.

The good news (relative to C) is that the ANSI X3J16 and ISO...WG21
groups have set up their rules for maximum cooperation in producing a
single standard document.  The bad news (for you, apparently) is that
it has no name yet, and won't until it is finished.

> 2.  The status of the standard, and any informed estimates of when
> it might be formally adopted.

My guess is 1995; some people think 1994, and a few think maybe 1993.

 In all controversies, it is better to wait the decisions of
 time, which are slow and sure, than to take those of synods,
 which are often hasty and injudicious.
  -- J. Priestley, 1761, not talking about X3J16/WG21
--
Doug Landauer -- landauer@eng.sun.com
SUNW[STE]->SunPro::Languages.IPE(C++);

landauer@morocco.Eng.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer) writes:

> ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22/WG21
>This is an international committee.  (I'm not up on exactly what all of
>the letters stand for.  "J" stands for "Joint".  :-)

The letters mean

 International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
 International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

both have formed a

 Joint Technical Commitee No. 1 (JTC)  (responsible for information precessing)

which has a

 SubCommitee 22 (SC) for programming languages

and there a

 Working Group No. 21 (WG)

is doing the work (e.g. on C++).

The members of these commitees are members of the national standard
bodies (e.g. ANSI in the US of A, DIN in Germany, BSI in GB, ...)

Markus

---
Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student -=-=- University of Erlangen, Germany
Internet: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de  |  X.500 entry available
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