in050382

H2-2005-232

Annual Report for INCITS H2

Covering the Period from February 2004 through May 2005

Title of INCITS Technical Committee: Database

Submitted 9 June 2005

Donald R. Deutsch, Chair
H2 Technical Committee on Database

Oracle Corporation
500 Oracle Parkway, 5op3
Redwood Shores, CA  94065

1.    Informal Description of Work:

The H2 Technical Committee on Database develops standards for the syntax and semantics of database languages. Computer processes and human users store, retrieve, update and administer large structured data collections using these languages. In addition to developing new SQL standards and addenda to ANSI and ISO/IEC SQL standards, H2 has TAG authority for ISO/IEC JTC1 SC32 and coordinates its work with related projects of the SC32’s Working Groups WG3 and WG4 on Database Languages, and SQL Multimedia and Application Packages respectively - and maintains liaison with other de jure standards bodies and consortia activities.

2.    Executive Summary

H2 met twelve (12) times since my January 2004 report to INCITS – seven (7) teleconferences and five (5) face-to-face meetings including two (2) co-located with JTC 1 SC 32 WG3. 

Database Langauge SQL: During the reporting period, H2 completed international standards work on 9075-14 SQL/XML, participating in the FDIS ballot resolution meeting held in Berlin in April 2005.  Work was also started on the next edition of 9075-14.  H2 also reviewed and cast ballots on the CD ballot for the other 8 parts of 9075 and participated in a ballot resolution meeting that resulted from that ballot. The primary focus of work within H2 continues to be SQL/XML, which is carried out between meetings via ad hocs that meet almost weekly, reporting results and submiting change proposals to H2 teleconference and face-to-face meetings.

SQL Multi-Media: During the reporting period, H2 progressed the 2nd generation of SQL/MM Part 6 Data Mining and the 3rd generations of SQL/MM Part 1 Framework and Part 3 Spatial to CD ballot.

Committee Participation and Activity: Despite increasing the number of electronic (and reducing the number of face-to-face) meetings to encourage continued participation, H2 membership dropped to 12 after entering the year at 14.  H2 considered over 550 technical papers in the 12 meetings held during the 16-month reporting period.   Compared to the less than 400 that were considered in the six meetings during the 12 months covered by last year’s report, this represents a slight increase in the number of papers per month (34 versus 32) but a decline in the number of papers per meeting (46 versus 65).   It follows the 40% decline reported for 2003 over 2002.

Document Editing: Following Jim Melton’s multi-year effort to convert the H2 and ISO/IEC SQL documents to XML and solicit assistance for his editing resonsibilities, during the reporting period he successfully trained 4 associate editors (two from the USA) to do primary editing for 6 of the 9 parts of SQL. He retained responsibility for 3 parts as well as for publishing all 9 parts together, including inter-document linkages. The conversion to XML has proven more valuable than expected, especially in finding very subtle bugs in the specs.

3.    Significant Accomplishments

a.     Published Standards: None

b.     Progressed to FDIS

i.     SQL/XML: 2005 ISO/IEC 9075 Part 14 (subject to editor determining that XQuery is at the appropriate stage of progression)

c.     Progressed to FCD – NONE

d.     Progressed to CD

i.                 SQL 200n  ISO/IEC 9075
Part 1 – Framework
Part 2 – Foundation
Part 3 – CLI (Call Level Interface)
Part 5 – PSM (Persistent Stored Modules)
Part 9 – MED (Management of External Data)
Part 10 – OLB (Object Langauge Bindings)
Part 11 – Schemata
Part 13 – JRT (Java Routines and Types)

ii.                SQL/MM:200n ISO/IEC 13249 (2nd Generation)
Part 6 -- Data Mining

iii.              SQL/MM:200n ISO/IEC 13249 (3rd Generation)
Part 1 -- Framework
Part 3 -- Spatial

e.     Registered Working Draft: NONE

f.      Progressed to DCOR Ballot –

i.                  ISO/IEC 9075-1:2003/Cor.1:2005
Part 1 – Framework
Part 2 – Foundation
Part 3 – CLI (Call Level Interface)
Part 5 – PSM (Persistent Stored Modules)
Part 9 – MED (Management of External Data)
Part 10 – OLB (Object Langauge Bindings)
Part 11 – Schemata
Part 13 – JRT (Java Routines and Types)
Part14 -- XML

g.     Other

i.                H2 focused its efforts throughout the reporting period on developing XML extensions for SQL.  SQL/XML development discussions continued between H2 meetings under the auspices of ad hocs led by Krishna Kulkarni in almost weekly telecons with occasional face-to-face meetings.  Reports from the ad hocs and SQL/XML change proposals discussed therein were then addressed at regularly scheduled H2 meetings.  A substantial subset of H2 participants is active in the SQL/XML ad hocs.

ii.              All H2 projects are listed in (Projects: INCITS/SD-4).  Although authorized as ‘D’ projects, H2 continued to work “outside-in” on SQL language specifications; i.e., we develop specifications, process them through ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 32 WG3, and then adopt them as ANSI/INCITS standards when they have been approved by JTC 1.  SQL/MM processing has always been focused solely on preparing international standards.

iii.            H2 co-located with ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 32 WG3 twice during the reporting period, hosting the international group in the U.S. Virgin Islands in November 2004.

4.    Significant Challenges

a.     H2 voting membership fell to 12 during the reporting period.

b.     When representatives from only 5 organizations with voting privileges attended the March 2005 face-to-face meeting in Granville, OH, H2 was unable to take actions requiring 2/3 majority votes. 

H2 focused its meeting schedule on the international processing of SQL and SQL/MM specifications and tried to reduce the travel burden on participants.  Toward this objective, we scheduled more electronic and fewer face-to-face meetings.  Generally the schedule bracketed international meetings as follows:

i.                 Face-to-face meeting to approve US contributions prior to the deadline for on-time submissions to the international meeting

ii.                Teleconference to review contributions from other national bodies after international deadline for on-time papers

iii.              INTERNATIONAL MEETING

iv.              Teleconference to review results of international meeting

c.     After reporting issues with our infrastructure (email distributor and file-server) support in the last two reports to INCITS, H2 moved these facilities from the unemployed volunteer who previously supported our activity to the ITI/INCITS Secretariat and our Vice Chair’s donated facility respectively. 

5.    Expected Challenges

a.     Although the new infrastructure support arrangements described above have greatly improved the situation described in previous reports, we are still depending upon a volunteer for file server support.  Thus the flow of H2 information, the lifeblood of the standards process, is still beyond the control of INCITS and we are susceptible to the vagaries of one participant’s continued ability to provide the necessary support.

b.     H2 is not of one mind on whether and how to progress future SQL language enhancements.  The committee has had continuing discussions about how to avoid attendance problems and revitalize the TC culminating in a TC letter ballot that closed on 27 May 2005 (Preliminary Tally on TCLB: H2-2005-230), which will be the basis for continuing the dialog within the committee.    

6.    Committee Activities

a.     Meetings During Reporting Period

b.     Future Meetings

7.    Liaison Activities

H2 maintains liaison with related activities and groups within ANSI/INCITS, ISO/IEC and other domestic and international organizations.   (Liaisons: H2-SD-003_2005-02-04). 

8.    Membership and Officers

a.     Officers

i.                 Chairman:
Dr. Donald Deutsch
Oracle Corporation
500 Oracle Parkway, 5op3
Redwood Shores, CA 94065
(650) 506-2275; fax (650) 506-7218
donald.deutsch@oracle.com

ii.                International Representative:
Dr. Krishna Kulkarni IBM
555 Bailey Avenue
San Jose, CA 95141
(408) 463-3970; fax (408) 463-3834
krishnak@us.ibm.com

iii.              SQL Editor:
Jim Melton
1930 Viscounti Drive
Sandy, UT 84093
(801) 942-0144, fax (801) 942-3345
jim.melton@acm.org

iv.              Vice Chairman:
Keith Hare
JCC Consulting Inc.
600 Newark Road
PO Box 381
Granville, OH 43023
(740)587-0157, fax (740)587-0163
Keith@jcc.com

v.                Secretary:
Michael Gorman
Whitemarsh Information Systems
2008 Althea Lane
Bowie, MD 20716
 (301) 249-1142; fax (301) 249-955
mmgorman@wiscorp.com

vi.              Treasurer:
Tom Julien
NCR Corporation
17095 Via Del Campo
San Diego, CA 92127 USA
Phone: 858-485-2366 Fax: 858-485-2166
thomas.julien@ncr.com

vii.            Vocabulary Representative:
Michael Gorman
Whitemarsh Information Systems
2008 Althea Lane
Bowie, MD 20716
 (301) 249-1142; fax (301) 249-955
mmgorman@wiscorp.com

b.     Membership

H2 voting membership fell to 12 during the reporting period.  While this is 2 fewer than last reported to INCITS, it is consistent with the number of participants at the beginning of the previous reporting period and probably represents the stable state for the TC until the next consolidation or economic downturn. 

Many of the members contribute little to the technical specifications and attend only teleconference meetings; i.e., they do not travel to H2 meetings.  Nevertheless, most of the passive participants have expressed satisfaction with the situation whereby they can observe discussions among those who do contribute technically.

H2 participants still represent virtually all major vendors/producers of relational database management systems - but only a few remain.   Membership also includes a few users and consultants, a decreasing number of psuedo-feds (government contractors), and no U.S. government representatives. (Participants: H2-SD-006_2005-05-06)

9.    Future Trends and Related Activities

By expanding SQL capabilities to include facilities related to first Java and now XML, H2 is working to guarantee that SQL - the current lingua franca for database access - is maintained and enhanced so that it will continue its relevance in the future.  When currently underway work on SQL/XML is completed, there is no consensus among H2 participants about whether or what future work is required.

10.          Other Administrative Information

H2 continues to maintain an account to cover meeting expenses (Financial Statement: H2-2005-105), which was moved during the reporting period to make it more accessible to the INCITS Secretariat.

H2 procedures are intended to include only those things not specified in the INCITS SD-2.  They have not been revised since publication of the RD-2.  (Procedures: H2-SD-002_2003-02-14).

Submitted by: Dr. Donald R. Deutsch, Chairman

H2 Technical Committee on Database

9 June 2005

Attachments:

a.     Committee Projects: INCITS/SD – 4 <http://www.incits.org/tc_home/h2sd4.htm>

b.     Participation Data H2 membership <H2-SD-006_2005-05-06>

c.     Internal Procedures <H2-SD-002_2003-02-14>

d.     Financial Statement <H2-2005-105>

e.     Liaison List <H2-SD-003_2005-02-04>

f.      Prelimnary Tally for TCLB H2-2005-111r1 <H2-2005-230>