[ Last Updated: 07 November 2003 ]
I have been involved in the standardisation process since 1989. Initially this was as the principal representative of Microsoft Corporation to what was then called the ANSI/X3J16 (now NCITS/J16) committee for C++; but my interest grew and after I left Microsoft I continued to work with the ISO C++ Standards Committee, and later (and to a lesser extent) the ISO C Standards Committee.
In September 1999, Ireland formed a new Working Group tasked with tracking the ISO standards being developed under what is called ISO-IEC/JTC1/SC22. This group covered all the programming languages, formal specification languages, POSIX and various language bindings. The Irish group is called NSAI/ICTSCC/SC-07 and I am currently its convener.
In October 2002, due to work and time pressures, I stood down from involvement in all the Standards bodies in which I was active. As nobody took the convenership for the Irish group, it became dormant. However, during 2003 I was asked if I would be able to resume convenership of this group and in November 2003 I did so.
I also follow the development of the Commercial Standard CORBA offered by the OMG. Membership of this industry consortium is very expensive, so I can only track its progress as an outsider watching the public web site.