PLNews: Programming Language News

The Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme has been released. It is available in both HTML and PDF (~860 KB) formats.

It has been announced that draft 5.97 has been ratified as Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme.

102 ballots were cast by the 112 people registered to vote, with 67 electors supporting the ratification, and 35 opposing it.

It has been announced that the R^5.97RS draft of the Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme is now available. The main report, library report and non-normative appendices of this draft form the official R6RS adoption candidate.

It has been announced that the R^5.94RS draft of the Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme is now available.

It has been announced that the R^5.93RS [~650 KB, .pdf] draft of the the Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme is now available.

It has been announced that voter registration for the Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme Ratification process is now open. The registration will remain open until at least June 27, 2007, or until two weeks after the R⁶RS Editors produce their final draft.

"Anybody who has a stake in the Scheme standards process - except the members of the Steering Committee - may participate in the ratification vote. In order to register, a potential voter must supply a "Statement of Interest" declaring what his stake is in the outcome of the process. Each voter's statement must be original, must be at least 150 words long, and must actually address the question of what the voter's interest is in the Scheme standard. At the end of the registration period (but before any voting), the list of enrolled voters will be published along with their statements of interest."

It has been announced that R^5.93RS, the next draft of the Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme, will be delayed until May 22, 2007.

The next meeting of the BSI IST/5/-/55 programming language vulnerabilities panel will be held on March 13, 2007, at British Standards in London, Room 508, starting at 14:00. The meeting is open to all UK citizens.

It has been announced that R^5.92RS (~775 KB .pdf), the second draft of the of the Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme, is now available.

Further details are available at Lambda the Ultimate.

The Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme editors have announced that the R5.92RS draft has been delayed until January 18 or 19.

The Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme editors have announced that the archives of the r6rs-editors mailing list are now publically available.

It has also been announced that formal comments submitted by November 15, 2006 will receive a formal response by December 15, 2006.

A new R6RS draft is planned for January 15, 2007, taking into account comments and suggestions made by November 15, 2006.

It has been announced that a draft (~830 KB .pdf) of the Revised⁶ Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme is now available.

A six-month public comment period is also now open, and will continue until March 15, 2007.

The British Standards Institution's IST/5/-/55 language vulnerability panel will be meeting in London on August 15, 2006 to discuss UK input to the forthcoming ISO/IEC meeting on "Guidance for Avoiding Vulnerabilities through Language Selection and Use".

Panel membership is open to all UK citizens, and employees of UK domiciled companies. Those eligible can contact panel convenor Derek M. Jones (derek _AT_ knosof.co.uk) for more details.

It has been announced that an updated report detailing the status of the R6RS Scheme standardisation effort as of June 2006 is now available.

Isaac Jones has written a brief status update concerning the Haskell' standardisation effort.

This report focuses on the class system and concurrency discussion.

Objections (~45 KB .pdf) have been raised to the use of the name C++/CLI by the ISO fast-tracking of the ECMA-372: "C++/CLI Language Specification" standard. It has been suggested that the name conflicts with the existing ISO/IEC 14882:2003 C++ standard, as C++/CLI should be considered a different language than C++.

A number of differences between C++ and C++/CLI are pointed out, including: the addition of numerous new keywords to C++/CLI, the non-standard uses of existing C++ keywords, changes to the meaning of currently-valid C++ syntax, changes to the behavior of constructors and destructors, conflicts between C++ templates and C++/CLI generics, and more. It is suggested that C++/CLI has evolved into a separate language from C++, and that referring to both of the two languages by the name "C++" could lead to confusion among programmers, employers, and consumers.

Several new names are suggested, including: CLIpp, CliPP, CLI++, ++CLI, Ceeli, and eCma++. It has also been requested that "Ecma withdraw this document from fast-track voting and if they must re-submit it, do so under a name which will not conflict with Standard C++."

Isaac Jones has announced the Haskell' process, which will work towards a new Haskell standard.

As per the mission statement: "Haskell' will be a conservative refinement of Haskell 98. It will be the work of this committee to adopt a set of language extensions and modifications and to standardize a new set of libraries. We will strive to only include tried-and-true language features, and to define them at least as rigorously as Haskell 98 was defined. This standard will reflect the realities of developing practical applications in the Haskell language. We will work closely with the rest of the Haskell community to create this standard."

British Standards has formed the IST/5/-/55 panel, in order to provide UK input regarding programming language vulnerabilities to the SC22 High Integrity Ad Hoc Group.

Panel membership is open to all UK citizens, and employees of UK domiciled companies. Those eligible can contact panel convenor Derek M. Jones (derek _AT_ knosof.co.uk) for more details.

An updated version of "The New C Standard: An Economic and Cultural Commentary", by Derek Jones, is now available. It is an online book which analyses the C standard from a variety of perspectives.

This update fixes typos, now includes over 2000 hyperlinks, and allows for faster searching through page 782 of the PDF file. A complete list of changes is available.

The third editions of the C# and CLI Ecma standards have been approved. The new C# standard includes support for generics, nullable types, and anonymous methods. The CLI standard includes a parallel API allowing for the easier development of multithreaded code, and support for generics.