Foreword
The EXPRESS Language Foundation (“ELF”) is a registered public charity in the US that facilitates the education, standardization, research, promotion, definition, and usage of information modelling and programming languages, with a focus on the EXPRESS language family.
ELF works with international partners and experts across the globe, reflecting the international nature of its mission. More information about ELF is available on the official website (https://www.expresslang.org).
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ELF Directives.
In particular the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ELF documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ELF Directives.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ELF shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be provided in the Introduction.
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.
This document was prepared by the Technical Coordination Board (TCB). == Introduction
ELF is committed to expanding the realm of standards for information modelling and programming languages, with a focus on the EXPRESS language family and interoperability across the globe and communities of practice.
To facilitate its mission, the ELF Board of Directors has decided to align standardization and publication processes with international best practices, such as the ISO standardization process (ISO/IEC DIR 1, ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Consolidated ISO Supplement, ISO/IEC DIR 2) and the WTO Technical Barriers To Trade Agreements.
This document aims to achieve the said intention.
The document describes requirements for ELF standard documents.
ELF Directive: Standard document requirements
1 Scope
This document provides requirements on document structure of the following types of ELF publication:
Directive
Standard
Guide
Specification
Amendment
Technical corrigendum
Report
These publication types are described in Clause 1.
This document does not apply to the following types of documents produced by ELF, although processes described in this document can be optionally used as guidance:
2 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms
2.1 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org
standardization work item
publishable work item that creates output that relates to standardization
standardization project
organized process with one or more standardization work items (2.1.1) that contributes towards a defined scope of work
project owner
entity with authority in charge of a standardization project (2.1.2)
document
written output of a standardization work item (2.1.1)
ELF deliverable
document (2.1.4) that could be an ELF Standard, Guide, Specification, Report
ISO TC deliverable
document (2.1.4) of an ISO TC as described in ISO/IEC DIR 1
Note 1 to entry: According to ISO/IEC DIR 1, ISO TC deliverables include the following types: International Standards, Technical Specifications, Publicly Available Specifications and Technical Reports.
ELF technical committee
ELF TC
internal committee of ELF tasked with a scope of work it is responsible for
document stage
stage of document (2.1.4) as specified in the ELF stages (as defined in Clause 1)
standardization project output
output of a standardization project (2.1.2)
Note 1 to entry: In this document, this explicitly means any documents and IP rights produced by the standardization project.
standardization body
standards-developing organization
SDO
entity that publishes standardization work items (2.1.1)
proposal for standardization
proposal for a new work item (2.1.1) for standardization
co-develop
collaborative development
act of developing a standardization work item (2.1.1) by multiple parties from the proposal document stage (2.1.8)
co-publish
collaborative publishing
act of publishing documents (2.1.4) of identical content by multiple parties
joint work item
standardization work item (2.1.1) co-developed (2.1.12) by both parties
joint publication
publication that is co-published (2.1.13) by ELF with an external standardization body (2.1.10)
Note 1 to entry: Both parties may jointly hold copyright of the joint publication.
2.2 Abbreviated terms
IPR
Intellectual Property Rights
TCB
Technical Coordination Board
3 Project/document identifier
3.1 General
ELF implements a numbering system for projects/documents.
3.2 Project index
A project/document index shall be maintained on the ELF website with documents listed by number, name, and type.
3.3 Project code
The project code shall be of the form [n], where [n] is any selected positive integer of five (5) or less digits.
The numbering system applies across all project types. Different project types shall not share an identical project code.
The project code shall be assigned on proposal acceptance of the project.
Co-published documents shall attempt to use an identical project code in both ELF and at the collaborative publisher to prevent potential ambiguity, if possible.
3.4 Document identifier
3.4.1 Representation
The document identifier takes the form of [type][stage] [code][:][y], where:
[type] is the document identifier prefix;
[stage] is the document stage;
[code] is the project code of the project that created the document; and
[y] is the 4-digit edition year.
3.4.2 Edition year
The edition year is the calendar year in which the document is published. On updates, a document will retain the same project code but may be assigned a different edition year in which the update is published.
3.4.3 Co-publishing
Co-published documents shall incorporate codes from all collaborative publishing parties in the document identifier, joined together via a “solidus” sign (“/”).
EXAMPLE ELF deliverables co-published with ISO are referenced as “ELF/ISO”, with IETF as “ELF/IETF”.
3.4.4 Document types
Document types shall be represented in the “type” as follows:
Standard, “ELF”
Directive, “ELF/DIR”
Guide, “ELF/Guide”
Specification, “ELF/S”
Report, “ELF/R”
Amendment, “ELF/Amd”
Technical corrigendum, “ELF/Cor”
Administrative, “ELF/A”
EXAMPLE “ELF/Guide/DS 38002:2018” is an ELF Guide at DS stage with project number 38002, published in 2018.
3.4.5 Document stages
Document stages shall be represented in the “stage” as follows:
Published, “ ” (blank)
Final draft standard, “/FDS”
Draft standard, “/DS”
Technical committee draft, “/CD”
Project group draft / Working draft, “/WD”
EXAMPLE 1 “ELF/FDS 10668:2018” is an ELF standard document at FDS stage with project number 10668, published in 2018.
EXAMPLE 2 “ELF/Guide/DS 20080:2018” is an ELF guide at DS stage with project number 20080, published in 2018.
NOTE Existing documents can be retrofitted to the scheme as practical.
4 Document structure
4.1 General
This section describes the document structure and element requirements of a ELF standard document.
4.2 Cover page
The cover page will contain:
ELF logo
Document number (3.3)
Document type (3.4.4)
Document title
Document status (3.4.5)
Date of publication
Responsible technical committee
Document authors and their affiliations, if any (4.6)
Incorporation by reference and hyperlink of the appropriate statements of Intellectual Property Rights, Appropriate Usage, Trademarks, and Disclaimer of Warranty
In co-published deliverables, as well as any further adoptions, the document shall retain the logographic marks of the publishing organizations.
4.3 Draft warning
This warning must be shown on the cover page for all draft documents.
WARNING FOR DRAFTS
This document is not an ELF Standard. It is distributed for review and comment, and is subject to change without notice and may not be referred to as a Standard. Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are aware and to provide supporting documentation.
4.4 Public review note
Certain ELF documents are intended for public review, as specified in Clause 1.
The following note must be shown on the cover page for all documents intended for public review.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR REVIEW
This draft is intended for public review. Comments shall be submitted to the issue tracker of the corresponding ELF document repository.
4.5 Technical committee
The responsible technical committee shall be shown on the cover page.
4.7 Contributor acknowledgement
Contributors other than authors and editors of the document as well as other contributing parties, shall be provided if appropriate within the Foreword.
4.8 Table of contents
A table of contents shall be provided in any user consumable format, including HTML, PDF and Word.
This does not apply to standard definition files (ELF XML) intended for machine consumption.
The table of contents may be omitted if the document is to be provided on paper medium with less than five (5) pages.
4.9 Sections and subsections
The body of the document shall have section and subsection identifiers to make it easy to refer clearly to specific items in the document.
4.10 Referable document elements
Document elements including numbered list items, examples, and notes shall be numbered uniquely within a clause. Such elements shall be cited within the document by their number and containing clause.
EXAMPLE 1 “Clause 3 a)”
EXAMPLE 2 “6.3.3 a)”
EXAMPLE 3 “8.2 Note 3”
EXAMPLE 4 “2.6 Example 9”
Tables, figures, formulas shall be numbered uniquely within the document. Such elements shall be cited within the document by their type and number.
EXAMPLE 5 “Table 2”
EXAMPLE 6 “Figure 5”
EXAMPLE 7 “Formula 12”
4.11 Foreword
The foreword shall be the first section of the document, unnumbered. It is a mandatory section.
The foreword shall contain a description of the ELF organization and provide the necessary copyright and trademark statements.
It is also the place to provide acknowledgements to contributors.
In a revised ELF standard, the foreword shall also describe a summary of changes from the previous edition.
4.12 Introduction
The introduction shall be the second section of the document, unnumbered. It is a mandatory section.
It shall describe the purpose and intent of the document, as well as potential use cases. The document’s relationship with existing ELF or external standards, if appropriate to be explained, shall also be described here.
4.13 Scope
The scope shall always be provided as Section 1.
4.14 Normative and informative references
The section for normative references should be placed at Section 2 of the document.
Informative references shall be placed at the Bibliography section at the end of the document, unnumbered.
References in these sections shall be fully cited.
4.15 Terms and definitions
The terms and definitions sections shall be placed beginning at Section 3.
4.16 Annexes and appendices
Annexes are numbered sections provided after the main body text. An annex may be considered informative or normative.
Each annex is given a clause identifier of capital Latin letters starting from the A to Z (English order). The first annex shall be stated as (and referred to) “Annex A”, the second “Annex B”, and so forth.
Clauses within annexes shall start with the annex identifier, for example, the first subclause in Annex A is “A.1”.
Appendixes are “annexes of annexes”, and are given a clause identifier that incorporate the annex it belongs to, followed by a capital Latin letter starting from A to Z (English order).
For example, the first appendix of Annex A will be “Appendix AA”, the second appendix of Annex C will be “Annex CB”.
Clauses within appendix shall start with the appendix identifier, for example, the first subclause in Annex SA is “SA.1”.
4.17 Change summary
Changes to a document from a previous edition shall be described in summarized, bullet-point form at the end of the Foreword (4.11).
4.18 Page numbers
For documents rendered on paper medium for user consumption, page numbers shall be provided on all pages.
Page numbers shall use Roman numbers of unnumbered initial sections, and Arabic numerals for the main body of text (including appendices).
4.19 Trademark and copyright statement
A trademark and copyright statement of the form shown below must appear on the cover page and the foreword.
Note that “yyyy” is the 4-digit year, such as “2009”.
© yyyy EXPRESS Language Foundation.
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from the address below.
4.20 Draft documents
Draft documents should clearly indicate on the title page and every page of the document that they are a draft document.
4.21 Canonical representation
An ELF document shall be digitally represented in canonical form using the ELF XML syntax, in accordance with its defined grammar. This allows the ELF document to be digitally rendered into any kind of supported format, including HTML, PDF and Word.
ELF XML is an adopted form of Metanorma XML of the Metanorma standard document model.
Bibliography
[1] ISO/IEC DIR 1, ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Procedures for the technical work
[2] ISO/IEC DIR 2, ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, Principles and rules for the structure and drafting of ISO and IEC documents
[3] ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Consolidated ISO Supplement, ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Consolidated ISO Supplement, Procedures specific to ISO
[4] WTO Technical Barriers To Trade Agreements, World Trade Organization, The WTO Agreements Series Technical Barriers to Trade