ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 N

3341/WG 2 N 2064
Date: 1999-07-26
Supersedes SC 2 N 3278

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2
CODED CHARACTER SETS
SECRETARIAT: JAPAN (JISC)

DOC TYPE:

Other document

TITLE:SC2 Comments on ISO/IEC JTC1 N5698, the Japanese National Body
Recommendation to ISO/IEC JTC1 Concerning the Activities of JTC1 SC2SOURCE:

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2

PROJECT:--STATUS:In accordance with Resolution M09.02, SC 2 formed an ad hoc group to revise
document N 3273 and N 3278 for submittal to JTC 1. The ad hoc groupsubmitted its final draft to the SC 2 members for review by 1999-07-15 via email and comments received have been incorporated in this document. This
document is submitted to JTC 1 for consideration at its Seoul plenary meeting,1999-11-01/05.

ACTION ID:

FYIDUE DATE:
DISTRIBUTION: P, O and L Members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2
WG Conveners and Secretariats
Secretariat, ISO/IEC JTC 1
ISO/IEC ITTF
NO. OF PAGES: 2
ACCESS LEVEL: Defind
WEB ISSUE #:058

Contact: Secretariat ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 - Toshiko Kimura
IPSJ/ITSCJ (Information Processing Society of Japan/Information Technology Standards Commission of Japan)*Room 308-3, Kikai-Shinko-Kaikan Bldg., 3-5-8, Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0011 JAPAN
Tel: +81 3 3431 2808; Fax: +81 3 3431 6493; E-mail: kimura@itscj.ipsj.or.jp*A Standard Organization accredited by JISC

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 N 3341
Date: 1999-07-23
Supersedes N 3278
SC2 comments on ISO/IEC JTC1 N5698, the Japanese National Body Recommendation toISO/IEC JTC1 Concerning the Activities of JTC1 SC2SC2 agrees with Japan on the importance of the standardization work of JTC 1/SC 2. The SC2,however, cannot agree with all of the conclusions drawn by Japan in JTC1 N 5698.
1. ISO/IEC 10646 is called the "Universal Character Set" for a reason: it is intended to cover all
the scripts of the world. This view is widely shared by the industry and the user communities, bothof which participate, both directly and indirectly, in the work of the SC2.
1a. Japan's concern seems predicated primarily on the concern for market relevance of theongoing work in the SC2 for ISO/IEC 10646. The first point implies that working on dead or almost
dead ancient character sets has no market relevance. As regards the issue of market relevance ofhistoric scripts, or living minority scripts, for that matter, 10646, as the Universal Character Set, isin a unique position as a standard. Since ISO/IEC 10646 is intended as the one, universal
international standard for characters, ISO/IEC 10646 must contain all scripts. It is then up tomarket forces to drive the scope of implementations of the standard. Implementers can choose toimplement only those parts of the standard that are relevant to their applications and markets.
1b. There are some of living scripts in use in Southeast Asia that are not yet included in 10646.
However, it is incorrect to infer that due attention and proper priority by the SC2 is lacking. It ismisleading to characterize the supply of ancient scripts as "virtually inexhaustible".
The SC2 has a plan, in the form of a roadmap, which provides a guideline for the prioritization of
the program of work of its WG2 in the future development of ISO/IEC 10646.
2. Japan's suggestion to use distributed maintenance and ownership for registration processes isat best impractical for lack of mechanism and control. At worst, it would result in a fractured
standard; something that very much goes against the idea of a unified, universal character set thatis the primary market requirement. Thus the suggestion to distribute the development andmaintenance of ISO/IEC 10646 outside of the SC2 is more likely to cause interoperability problems
rather than avoiding them.
3. Japan's last point claims that the "basic concept of IS 10646 seems to be changing andambiguous." This is not correct. What has been changing is the nature of the new proposals for
scripts and other characters to be added to the Universal Character Set. The SC2 does not thinkthat the scope of the project has changed..
Japan claims that "the plane assignment is given for limited number of planes in rather ad hocmanner". The development plan for ISO/IEC 10646 consists of three phases. Phase 1 focusedon the development of the Basic Multilingual plane and a base architecture. Phase 1 wascompleted with the publication of part 1 of 10646 in May 1993. Phase 2 concentrated on thedevelopment of additional scripts for inclusion in part 1. This phase, which included 31
amendments and 2 technical corrigenda, is nearing completion with the expected publication of thenext edition of part 1 of 10646 in March 2000. Phase 3 is under development and is focusing on
the development of additional scripts that will be limited to 16 additional planes. Phase 3 will resultin the publication of part 2 of 10646, which is expected to be published in December 2001. Noplans exist beyond phase 3 as of now.
In conclusion, and in response to these concerns, the SC2, at its meeting 9 in Fukuoka, Japan,agreed on additional guidelines for the future development of ISO/IEC 10646 that are included indocument SC2 N3273.
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