Dan Saks will doubtless give you the technical details of what was accomplished at the WG21/X3J16 joint committee meeting in Munich. The important thing to me is that more and more people are talking seriously about meeting the July 1994 deadline for producing a Working Draft of the C++ standard for initial balloting and commentary. There are still plenty of people on the joint committee who despair of ever achieving closure, much less in 1994. But the pressure is building to stay close to schedule.

The work binge I described last month culminated in about 130 pages of standardese and rationale describing my vision of the Standard C++ library. Trouble is, I didn't really have time to separate out my proposed extensions from what was already accepted. And it's generally considered bad manners to show up unannounced with a paper even a fifth that size. I will understate the matter and say that the contribution got a mixed reception.

Nevertheless, I am now acting as official unofficial editor for the Library Working Group. (Andy Koenig is now the real and official project editor for the C++ draft standard.) That gave me the charter to work around the clock for a week after I got home. I turned my blue-sky document into a more accurate reflection of what's actually been accepted. My hope is that, despite a rocky start, this work will speed up at least part of the development of the C++ standard.

Three of us (Tom Plum, John Benito, and I) then moved on to London for the WG14 (ISO C standards) meeting. Despite some residual opposition to the Danish portion of the Normative Addendum, we worked over the document and agreed to advance it through the ISO approval process. We also worked through nearly five dozen "Defect Reports," mostly requests for interpretation. So I now have a bouquet of documents to edit, format, and submit up the line for balloting by our betters within ISO.

My ambitious dreams got brought up short, however. The Japanese were reluctant to adopt the handful of additions I proposed. They are concerned about winning approval for additional large-character support in Standard C. My enhancements were aimed more at improving compatibility with C++. I wised up quick and withdrew my proposals.

On the other hand, the mounting pressure for change has forced WG14 to start considering revisions to Standard C sooner than we'd expected. No, it's not yet time to write up your favorite extensions, but that time may not be as far off as we all thought.

In the midst of all this work, I find it easy to forget that I don't get paid for any of it. It certainly looks like a real job. Fortunately, I still get enough material to mine for columns, talks, and the occasional book. At least I get paid for those. Which reminds me, I'd better start paying for those plane tickets to Europe.

P.J. Plauger
pjp@plauger.com.