34N0060BLT

Vote on a Committee Draft, ISO/IEC FCD 13240

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34, Document Description and Processing Languages

Secretariat: USA - ANSI

ISO/IEC FCD 13240, Information Technology - Interchange Standard for Multimedia Interactive Documents (ISMID)

Reference number: ISO/JTC 1/SC 34 N0060

Date of circulation: 1999-05-18

Closing date: 1999-09-18

Please return all votes and comments in electronic form directly to the SC 34 Secretariat by the due date indicated.

__ APPROVAL OF THE DRAFT AS PRESENTED

_X_ APPROVAL OF THE DRAFT WITH COMMENTS AS GIVEN BELOW (use separate page as annex, if necessary)

__ general

_X_ technical

_X_ editorial

__ DISAPPROVAL OF THE DRAFT FOR REASONS BELOW (use separate page as annex, if necessary)

__ Acceptance of these reasons and appropriate changes in the text will change our vote to approval

__ ABSTENTION (for reasons below):

____________________________________

P-member voting (National Body/Acronym): JP

Date: 1999-09-01

Submitted by (Name/Signature):

__Yushi KOMACHI__

Secretariat ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34,Marisa Topping, mtopping@ansi.org

Japan's Comments on ISO/IEC FCD 13240 (SC34 N60)

Title: Interchange Standard for Multimedia Interactive Documents (ISMID)

Source: The National Body of Japan

Status: Comments appended to the Approval Vote

Date: Sept. 1, 1999

The National Body of Japan approves ISO/IEC FCD 13240 with the following comments.

1. Minor Technical Comments

1.1 HyFunc and DSSSL Support

The current document indicates HyFunc and DSSSL as expression languages, and it specifies that DSSSL is default in 9.11.7 and that HyFunc is mandatory in 2. HyFunc is a subset of DSSSL and redundant.

DSSSL should be specified to be mandatory in 2. Conformance, and HyFunc should be removed from expression language alternatives.

1.2 Addition of Definition of "external object"

External objects are a kind of interface objects and are important constituents in ISMID. No definition, however, are given in 4. Definitions.

The following definition should be added:

external objects: A type of interface objects which are used to allow an interactive document to communicate with external systems.

2. Editorial Comments

2.1 Reference of Clause

References of clauses should contain clause numbers.

For example,

"clause The ISMID architecture" in the 2nd line of the 1st paragraph in 1.1.1 should be "clause 9. The ISMID architecture".
"Simple ISMID Application Definition Document (Informative)" in the 1st line of the 1st paragraph in 1.1.2 should be "Annex B. Simple ISMID Application Definition Document (Informative)".

Other references should be rewritten in the same way as above.

2.2 Unnecessary symbol in "Interactive Documents" of "Introduction"

The 3rd line in the 2nd paragraph contains unnecessary symbol "(1)". This symbol should be removed.

2.3 Addition to "5. Symbols and abbreviations"

RCS (used in 6.1) and AFDR (used in 6) should be added in 5.

2.4 Expression Style of Construct Names

The expression style of full construct names in English for elements and attributes is not clear; it cannot be distinguished from usual terms in main texts. See the example below.

The proposed styles are

The element/attribute SGMLname ("full construct name")
...

The SGMLname ("full construct name") element/attribute
...

For example, the 2nd sentence in 9.3,

The reference content does not exist (ContentNotExist)
attribute determines how the system shall handle ...

should be replaced with

The ContentNotExist ("reference content does not exist") attribute determines how the system shall handle ...

2.5 ISMID HyTime support declataion

The year indication in HyTimePUBLIC should be 1997 instead of 1992 because HyTime published in 1997 is referred to.