10 Special Considerations
10.1 Health and
Safety Considerations
The Secretaries-General may intervene in the processing of a document
at any stage if they are notified of any serious health, safety or
other risk likely to arise from the implementation of the standard and
are prima facie satisfied of the need to have the matter
investigated. If the matter cannot be satisfactorily resolved in
consultation with the JTC 1 Secretariat, the Secretaries-General shall
refer the draft to Councils for decision (see 11).
10.2 Copyright
The copyright for DIS/FDISs, ISs, DAM/FDAMs, Amendments, DISP/FDISPs,
ISPs, Technical Corrigenda and TRs belongs to ISO and IEC.
For those registrations requiring it, a register shall be
published. The copyright on the register belongs to ITTF, which
may release the copyright to the JTC 1 Registration Authority for as
long as it functions in this capacity.
10.3 Patents
(See ISO/IEC Directives - Part 1: Procedures for the Technical Work,
section 2.14 and Part 2: Rules for
the structure and drafting of
International Standards, Annex H)
10.4 Formal Descriptions (FD)
10.4.1
The following
rules apply to the development and
acceptance of an FD:
- Normally, standard FDTs or FDTs in the process of being
standardised should be used in FDs of standards. (For exceptions
see 6.2.1.7)
- The development of an FD of any particular standard is a decision
of the SC. If an FD is to be developed for a new standard, the FD
should be progressed, as far as possible, according to the same
timetable as the rest of the standard.
10.4.2
For the
evolutionary introduction of an FD into standards,
three phases can be identified. It is the responsibility of the
SC to decide which phase initially applies to each FD and the possible
evolution of the FD toward another phase. It is not mandatory for
an FD to go through the three phases described and, more generally, it
is not mandatory for an FD to evolve.
10.4.2.1
Phase 1:
This phase is characterised by the fact that widespread knowledge of
FDTs, and experience in FDs, are lacking; there may not be sufficient
resources in the NBs to produce or review FDs. The development of
standards has to be based on conventional natural language approaches,
leading to standards where the natural language description is the
definitive standard.
SCs are encouraged to develop FDs of their standards since these
efforts may contribute to the quality of the standards by detecting
defects, may provide additional understanding to readers, and will
support the evolutionary introduction of FDTs.
An FD produced by an SC that can be considered to represent faithfully
a significant part of the standard or the complete standard should be
published as a TR type 2 in order to preserve the work done and make
this information available to NBs and liaison organisations.
Meanwhile SCs should develop and provide educational material for the
FDTs to support their widespread introduction in the NBs and liaison
organisations.
10.4.2.2
Phase 2:
In this phase, knowledge of FDTs and experience in formal descriptions
is more widely available; NBs can provide enough resources to support
the production of FDs. However, it cannot be assured that enough
NBs can review FDs in order to enable them to cast a ballot on a
proposed formally described standard.
The development of standards should still be based on conventional
language approaches, leading to standards where the natural language
description is the definitive standard. However, these
developments should be accompanied and supported by the development of
FDs of these standards with the object of improving and supporting the
structure, consistency, and correctness of the natural language
description.
An FD, produced by an SC that is considered to represent faithfully a
significant part of the standard or the complete standard would be
published as an informative annex to the standard. Meanwhile,
educational work should continue.
10.4.2.3
Phase 3:
In this phase a widespread knowledge of FDTs may be assumed. NBs
can provide sufficient resources both to produce and review FDs, and
assurance exists that the applications of FDTs do not unnecessarily
restrict freedom of implementation.
SCs should use FDTs routinely to develop their standards, and the FDs
become part of the standard together with natural language
descriptions. In cases where more than one description of a given
standard or part of a standard is provided, the SC shall provide an
indication in the standards as to which description should be treated
as the definitive version.
Whenever a discrepancy between a natural language description and an FD
or between two FDs is detected, the discrepancy shall be resolved by
changing or improving the natural language description or the FDs
without necessarily giving preference to one over the other.
10.5 Application
Portability
In order to facilitate the portability of applications using JTC 1
standards, each standard should be developed:
- With consideration given to the requirements and issues of
application portability; and
- With the intent that conformance of applications and
implementations to that standard will be verifiable.
Each standard shall incorporate, when applicable:
- An annex that outlines the significant portability capabilities
that are provided by the standard and indicates what user requirements
are addressed by the standard. The annex should facilitate the
development of application environment profiles.
- An annex on "portability considerations" for interfaces, data and
users. The annex must facilitate the review of the portability
aspects of the standard and must describe those parts or aspects of the
standard that are implementation dependent or are otherwise relevant to
application portability. The annex should also record portability
aspects which were addressed but not standardised.
See Annex J for Guidelines on API Standardisation.
10.6 Standard
International (SI) Units
If the IS under review does not comply with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2
- Rules for the structure and drafting of International Standards,
concerning the use of units, the following procedure shall apply:
- Standards which contain, in addition to units recommended in ISO
31 and ISO 1000, exact or approximate conversions in other units shall
be withdrawn or revised to comply with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2
methodology on the occasion of their next five-year review.
- When units that are not in ISO 31 or ISO 1000 are used throughout
a JTC 1 standard, those units may continue to be used if their
retention appears justified by the application enquiry at the time of
their next five-year review but, where applicable, footnotes may be
added to give conversions to SI units; further retention at the
subsequent five-year review shall however be subject to the approval of
the TMB/SMB.