Proposed Revision of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 119, ADA

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 940669-4169]

RIN 0693-AB25

Proposed Revision of Federal Information Processing Standards

(FIPS) 119, ADA

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),

Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: This proposed revision of Federal Information Processing

Standard (FIPS) 119, Ada, will adopt the revised voluntary industry

specifications, American National Standard and the International

Organization for Standardization Reference Manual for the Ada

Programming Language, ANSI/ISO/IEC 8652:1994, as a Federal Information

Processing Standard (FIPS). American National Standard and the

International Organization for Standardization Reference Manual for the

Ada Programming Language, ANSI/ISO/IEC 8652:1994, specifies the form

and meaning of programs written in Ada. The purpose of the standard is

to promote portability of Ada programs for use on a variety of data

processing systems. The standard is for use by implementors as the

reference authority in developing compilers, interpreters, or other

forms of high level language processors; and by other computer

professionals who need to know the precise syntactic and semantic rules

of the standard.

Prior to the submission of this proposed revision to the Secretary

of Commerce for review and approval, it is essential to assure that

consideration is given to the needs and views of manufacturers, the

public, and state and local governments. The purpose of this notice is

to solicit such views.

This proposed FIPS contains two sections: (1) An announcement

section, which provides information concerning the applicability,

implementation, and maintenance of the standard; and (2) a

specifications section which deals with the technical requirements of

the standard. Only the announcement section of the standard is provided

in this notice. Interested parties may obtain copies of the technical

specifications from the Standards Processing Coordinator (ADP),

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Technology Building,

Room B64, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, telephone (301) 975-2816.

DATES: Comments on this proposed revision must be received on or before

October 11, 1994.

ADDRESSES: Written comments concerning the proposed revision should be

sent to: Director, Computer Systems Laboratory, ATTN: Proposed FIPS

119-1, Ada, Technology Building, Room B-154, National Institute of

Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899. Written comments

received in response to this notice will be made part of the public

record and will be made available for inspection and copying in the

Central Reference and Records Inspection Facility, Room 6020, Herbert

C. Hoover Building, 14th Street between Pennsylvania and Constitution

Avenues, NW., Washington, DC 20230.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Dr. William H. Dashiell, National Institute of Standards and

Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, (301) 975-2490.

Dated: June 30, 1994.

Samuel Kramer,

Associate Director.

Proposed Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 119-1

DRAFT 1994 June 7 DRAFT

Announcing the Standard for Ada

Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBS)

are issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

after approval by the Secretary of Commerce pursuant to Section 111(d)

of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as

amended by the Computer Security Act of 1987, Public Law 100-235.

1. Name of Standard. Ada (FIPS PUB 119-1).

2. Category of Standard. Software Standard, Programming Language.

3. Explanation. This publication is a revision of FIPS PUB 119 and

supersedes that document in its entirety.

This publication announces the adoption of American National

Standard and the International Organization for Standardization

Reference Manual for the Ada Programming Language, ANSI/ISO/IEC

8652:1994, as a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS).

American National Standard and the International Organization for

Standardization Reference Manual for the Ada Programming Language,

ANSI/ISO/IEC 8652:1994, specifies the form and meaning of programs

written in Ada. The purpose of the standard is to promote portability

of Ada programs for use on a variety of data processing systems. The

standard is for use by implementors as the reference authority in

developing compilers, interpreters, or other forms of high level

language processors; and by other computer professionals who need to

know the precise syntactic and semantic rules of the standard.

4. Approving Authority. Secretary of Commerce.

5. Maintenance Agency. U.S. Department of Commerce, National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Computer Systems

Laboratory (CSL).

6. Cross Index. American National Standard and the International

Organization for Standardization Reference Manual for the Ada

Programming Language, ANSI/ISO/IEC 8652:1994.

7. Related Documents.

a. Federal ADP and Telecommunications Standards Index, U.S. General

Services Administration, Information Resources Management Service,

April 1994 (updated periodically).

b. Federal Information Resources Management Regulations (FIRMR)

subpart 201.20.303, Standards, and subpart 201.39.1002, Federal

Standards.

c. FIPS PUB 29-3, Interpretation Procedures for FIPS Software, 29

October 1992.

d. NBS Special Publication 500-117, Selection and Use of General-

Purpose Programming Languages.

e. NIST, Validated Products List, (republished quarterly).

Available by subscription from the National Technical Information

Service (NTIS).

f. ISO 6429: 1992(E)--Information Technology--Control Functions for

Coded Character Sets.

g. ISO 646 Information Processing--7-bit Single-Byte Coded

Character Set.

h. ISO 8859-1:1987(E)--Information Processing--8 bit Single-Byte

Coded Character Sets--Part 1: Latin Alphabet No. 1.

i. ISO 10646-1:1993 Information Technology--Universal Multiple-

Octet Coded Character Set (UCS)--Part 1: Architecture and Balic

Multilingual Plane.

8. Objectives. Federal standards for high level programming

languages permit Federal departments and agencies to exercise more

effective control over the production, management, and use of the

Government's information resources. The primary objectives of Federal

programming language standards are:

--To encourage more effective utilization and management of programmers

by insuring that programming skills acquired on one job are

transportable to other jobs, thereby reducing the cost of programmer

re-training;

--To reduce the cost of program development by achieving the increased

programmer productivity that is inherent in the use of high level

programming languages;

--To reduce the overall software costs by making it easier and less

expensive to maintain programs and to transfer programs among different

computer systems, including replacement systems;

--To protect the existing software assets of the Federal Government by

insuring to the maximal feasible extent that Federal programming

language standards are technically sound and that subsequent revisions

are compatible with the installed base.

Government-wide attainment of the above objectives depends upon the

widespread availability and use of comprehensive and precise standard

language specifications.

9. Applicability.

a. Federal standards for high level programming languages should be

used for computer applications that are either developed or acquired

for government use. FIPS Ada is one of the high level programming

language standards provided for use by all Federal departments and

agencies. FIPS Ada is suitable for use in programming and any

applications for which there is no specific language available

specifically targeted to that application.

b. The use of FIPS Ada is recommended for the following

applications and situations:

--Those involving control of real-time or parallel processes.

--Very large systems.

--Systems with requirements for very high reliability.

--Systems which are to be developed with reusable software packages.

--When it is anticipated that the life of an application will be longer

than the life of the presently utilized equipment.

--The application or program is under constant review for updating of

the specifications, and changes may result frequently.

--The application is being designed and programmed centrally for a

decentralized system that employs computers of different makes, models

and configurations.

--The program will or might be run on equipment other than that for

which the program is initially written.

--The program is to be understood and maintained by programmers other

than the original ones.

--The advantages of improved program design, debugging, documentation

and intelligibility can be obtained through the use of this high level

language.

--The program is or is likely to be used by organizations outside the

Federal Government (i.e., State and local governments, and others).

10. Specifications. FIPS Ada specifications are the language

specifications contained in American National Standard and the

International Organization for Standardization Reference Manual for the

Ada Programming Language, ANSI/ISO/IEC 8652:1994 standard.

The American National Standard and the International Organization

for Standardization Reference Manual for the Ada Programming Language,

ANSI/ISO/IEC 8652:1994 standard document specifies the form of a

program written in Ada, the effect of translating and executing a

program, predefined library entities that must be supplied, and

detection of compilation and/or link errors.

The standard does not specify limits on the size or complexity of

programs, the results when the rules of the standard fail to establish

an interpretation, the means of supervisory control of programs, or the

means of transforming programs for processing.

11. Implementation. The implementation of FIPS Ada involves four

areas of consideration: the effective date, acquisition of Ada

processors, interpretation of FIPS Ada, and validation of processors.

11.1 Effective Date. This revised standard becomes effective

ninety (90) days after the publication in the Federal Register

announcing approval by the Secretary of Commerce. Ada Processors

acquired for Federal use after this date should conform to FIPS PUB

119-1.

A transition period provides time for industry to produce Ada

language processors conforming to the standard. The transition period

begins on the effective date and ends March 1, 1997. The provisions of

FIPS PUB 119-1 apply to orders placed after the effective date of this

publication. If, during the transition period, a processor conforming

to FIPS PUB 119-1 is not available, a processor conforming to FIPS PUB

119 may be acquired for interim use during the transition period.

This transition period is intended to give implementations that

conform to FIPS PUB 119 time to make the enhancements necessary to

enable conformance to FIPS PUB 119-1. No further transitional period is

necessary.

11.2 Acquisition of Ada Processors. Conformance to FIPS Ada should

be considered whether Ada processors are developed internally, acquired

as part of an ADP system procurement, acquired by separate procurement,

used under an ADP leasing arrangement, or specified for use in

contracts for programming services. Recommended terminology for

procurement of FIPS Ada is contained in the U.S. General Services

Administration publication Federal ADP & Telecommunications Standards

Index, Chapter 4 Part 1.

11.3 Interpretation of FIPS Ada. The National Institute of

Standards and Technology provides for the resolution of questions (see

FIPS PUB 29-3, Interpretation Procedures for FIPS Software, 29 October

1992) regarding the specifications and requirements, and issues

official interpretations as needed. All questions about the

interpretation of this standard should be addressed to: Director,

Computer Systems Laboratory, Attn: FIPS Ada Interpretation, National

Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, Voice:

301-975-2490, FAX: 301-948-6213, e-mail: [email protected].

11.4 Validation of Ada Processors. Implementations of FIPS Ada

shall be validated in accordance with the NIST Computer Systems

Laboratory (CSL) validation procedures for FIPS Ada. Recommended

procurement terminology for validation of FIPS Ada is contained in the

U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) publication Federal ADP &

Telecommunications Standards Index, Chapter 4 Part 2. This GSA

publication provides terminology for three validation options: Delayed

Validation, Prior Validation Testing, and Prior Validation. The agency

shall select the appropriate validation option and shall specify

whether a Validation Summary Report or Certificate of Validation is

required. The agency shall specify appropriate time frames for

validation and correction of nonconformities. The agency is advised to

refer to the NIST publication Validated Products List for information

about the validation status of Ada products. This information may be

used to specify validation time frames that are not unduly restrictive

of competition.

The agency shall specify the criteria used to determine whether a

Validation Summary Report (VSR) or Certificate is applicable to the

hardware/software environment of the Ada implementation offered. The

criteria for applicability of a VSR or Certificate should be

appropriate to the size and timing of the procurement. A large

procurement may require that the offered version/release of the Ada

implementation shall be validated in a specified hardware/software

environment and that the validation shall be conducted with specified

hardware/software features or parameter settings; e.g., the same

parameter settings to be used in a performance benchmark.

An agency with a single/license procurement may review the

Validated Products List to determine the applicability of existing VSRs

or Certificates to the agency's hardware/software environment.

Ada implementations shall be evaluated using a NIST approved test

suite.

For further information contact: Director, Computer Systems

Laboratory, Attn: FIPS Ada Validation, National Institute of Standards

and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, Voice: 301-975-2490, FAX: 301-

948-6213, e-mail: [email protected].

12. Waivers. Under certain exceptional circumstances, the heads of

Federal departments and agencies may approve waivers to Federal

Information Processing Standards (FIPS). The head of such agency may

re-delegate such authority only to a senior official designated

pursuant to section 3506(b) of Title 44, U.S. Code. Waivers shall be

granted only when:

a. Compliance with a standard would adversely affect the

accomplishment of the mission of an operator of a Federal computer

system, or

b. Cause a major adverse financial impact on the operator which is

not offset by Government wide savings.

Agency heads may act upon a written waiver request containing the

information detailed above. Agency heads may also act without a written

waiver request when they determine that conditions for meeting the

standard cannot be met. Agency heads may approve waivers only by a

written decision which explains the basis on which the agency head made

the required finding(s). A copy of each such decision, with procurement

sensitive classified portions clearly identified, shall be sent to:

National Institute of Standards and Technology, ATTN: FIPS Waiver

Decisions, Technology Building, Room B-154, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.

In addition, notice of each waiver granted and each delegation of

authority to approve waivers shall be sent promptly to the Committee on

Government Operations of the House of Representatives and the Committee

on Governmental Affairs of the Senate and shall be published promptly

in the Federal Register.

When the determination on a waiver applies to the procurement of

equipment and/or services, a notice of the waiver determination must be

published in the Commerce Business Daily as a part of the notice of

solicitation for offers of an acquisition or, if the waiver

determination is made after that notice is published, by amendment to

such notice.

A copy of the waiver, any supporting documents, the document

approving the waiver and any supporting and accompanying documents,

with such deletions as the agency is authorized and decides to make

under 5 U.S.C. 552(b), shall be part of the procurement documentation

and retained by the agency.

13. Where to Obtain Copies. Copies of this publication are for sale

by the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of

Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161, telephone (703) 487-4650. When

ordering, refer to Federal Information Processing Standards Publication

119-1 (FIPSPUB119-1), and title. Payment may be made by check, money

order, or deposit account.

[FR Doc. 94-16620 Filed 7-8-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-CN-M