Committee Membership for ANSI/ISO

["Scott E. Fahlman" <Fahlman@C.CS.CMU.EDU>]

At the December Common Lisp meeting Scott Fahlman, Dick Gabriel, Bob
Mathis, Dave Moon, Stephen Squires, Guy Steele, and Dan Weinreb were
charged with the duty of selecting a technical committee and a steering
committee to develop ANSI and ISO standards for Common Lisp.  This
message is to report on the membership of those committees, to describe
the actions we have taken towards making those committees official, and
to outline the next steps we need to take.

We have decided not to create the committee under DARPA sponsorship, but
rather to operate within the ANSI framework, setting up a committee for
Common Lisp under X3 tentatively known as X3J13.

The membership in X3J13 will be self-selecting: X3 committees are open
to anyone who pays the dues ($150/year) and who participates actively in
the committee's work.  These organizations move very slowly: X3J13
cannot begin operating until next fall at the earliest.  Once the X3J13
committee is functioning, the technical and steering committees will
report to X3J13.  In the meantime, we expect to make considerable
progress toward producing an acceptable standard.

X3 committees are permitted to have members from other countries.  We
have not asked anyone outside the U. S. to join either committee as yet,
but we intend to invite some members from outside the U. S. as a way of
getting the benefit of international experience and cooperation.

There are two committees that we propose to establish now: the steering
committee and the technical committee.  The steering committee is
charged with guiding the results of the technical committee through the
standardization process, particularly at the ISO level.  The technical
committee is to refine the language definition and produce a document
specifying the proposed Common Lisp standard.

The American members of the steering committee are:

Richard P. Gabriel, Lucid, Inc.
Robert F. Mathis, Private Consultant 
John McCarthy, Stanford University 
Ronald Ohlander, USC Information Sciences Institute
Stephen L. Squires, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Guy L. Steele Jr., Thinking Machines, Inc.

The American members of the technical committee were chosen according to
several criteria:

(1) The member must have a deep knowledge of Lisp, with experience both
in the implementation and design of at least one serious Lisp
implementation.

(2) The member must be a well-recognized, prominent individual.  He or she
must be someone whose reputation is recognized internationally.

(3) The group, considered as a whole, must reflect the wide variety of
viewpoints and backgrounds that are present in the Common Lisp
community.

(4) The committee must not be so large that it is unable to reach
decisions with reasonable speed.

(5) The members are chosen as individuals with a commitment to the
success of Common Lisp as a widely used standard, and not as
representatives of their respective companies or organizations.

Obviously, if the committee is to be of reasonable size, it is not
possible for every company and implementation group to be represented on
the technical committee.  Our intention is to discuss each issue as it
arises on the Common Lisp mailing list and to invite any interested
individuals to observe and participate in this discussion.  The technical
committee will be responsible for making final decisions on what will go
into the proposed Common Lisp document, but no final decisions will be
made without ample opportunity for input from the whole community.  Some
disagreement is probably inevitable, but there will be no surprises.

While the opinion of each individual will be considered, companies may
wish to appoint an official spokesperson who is authorized to speak for
the company in technical matters.  We will attempt to arrange for
netmail access for one person from any serious implementation group that
does not currently enjoy such access.

The American members of the technical committee are:

Alan Bawden, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Daniel G. Bobrow, Xerox Corporation
Scott E. Fahlman, Carnegie-Mellon University
Richard P. Gabriel, Lucid, Inc.
Martin L. Griss, Hewlett-Packard, Inc.
David A. Moon, Symbolics, Inc.
Jonathan A. Rees, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Guy L. Steele Jr., Thinking Machines, Inc.

At this point a document has been submitted to the Standards Planning and
Requirements Committee of X3, known as SPARC, proposing the formation of
the X3J13 committee.  SPARC is the committee which must approve the
formation of any new technical committees. The document outlines the need
for such a committee, the scope of the standard, the potential members of
the committee, and the plan and schedule for accomplishing the standard.

We hope that the standardization work informally started in the Lisp community
will continue to fruition at the national and international levels.

				Scott E. Fahlman
				Richard P. Gabriel
				Robert F. Mathis
				David A. Moon
				Guy L. Steele Jr.
				Stephen L. Squires
				Daniel L. Weinreb