ISO's Country Groups Seek Role in ECMA Java Standardization

Computergram International, Sept 20, 1999 by William Fellows

National bodies within the International Standards Organization are determined to have a say in the way that Java is standardized now that Sun Microsystems Inc has abandoned its direct submission to ISO and chosen instead to use the European Computer Manufacturers Association as a route to eventual ratification by ISO. Going via ECMA means that Sun can retain control over Java's future. In Sun's abandoned PAS submission to ISO it would have had to cede some control over the future development and maintenance of a Java specification to national bodies represented in ISO's SC22 computer programming languages committee.

SC22's Java interests are represented by its Java Study Group, which is expected to be given a new lease of life at a meeting in Berlin this week. The Japanese, French and US national bodies represented in JSG have asked ECMA for some sort of liaison relationship with TC41, a committee ECMA has formed to handle Java standardization.

The ECMA Coordinating Committee is meeting at the same time as the Berlin plenary and one of its agenda items is "how to deal with these requests for participation by national body committees." US JSG representatives say early indications are that rather than let each NB committee participate individually, ECMA may let JSG participate as the conduit for all NB committees. There has been some gentle lobbying for SC22 to extend JSG's life for another year, while Sun has suggested that JSG should be disbanded.