ANSI/INCITS/ISO/IEC 11404:1996(R2007) Information technology -- Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces -- Language-independent datatypes
This International Standard specifies the nomenclature and shared semantics for a collection of datatypes commonly occurringin programming languages and software interfaces, referred to as the Language-Independent (LI) Datatypes. It specifies bothprimitive datatypes, in the sense of being defined ab initio without reference to other datatypes, and non-primitive datatypes, inthe sense of being wholly or partly defined in terms of other datatypes. The specification of datatypes in this International Stan-dard is "language-independent" in the sense that the datatypes specified are classes of datatypes of which the actual datatypesused in programming languages and other entities requiring the concept datatype are particular instances.This International Standard expressly distinguishes three notions of "datatype", namely: ~ the conceptual, or abstract, notion of a datatype, which characterizes the datatype by its nominal values and properties; ~ the structural notion of a datatypc, which characterizes the datatype as a conceptual organization of specific component datatypes with specific functionalities; and ~ the implementation notion of a datatype, which characterizes the datatype by defining the rules for representation of the datatype in a given environment.This International Standard defines the abstract notions of many commonly used primitive and non-primitive datatypes whichpossess the structural notion of atomicity. This International Standard does not define all atomic datatypes; it defines only thosewhich are common in programming languages and software interfaces. This International Standard defines structural notions forthe specification of other non-primitive datatypes and provides a means by which datatypes not defined herein can be definedstructurally in terms of the LI datatypes defined herein.This International Standard defines a partial vocabulary for implementation notions of datatypos and provides for, but does notrequire, the use of this vocabulary in the definition of datatypes. The primary purpose of this vocabulary is to identify commonimplementation notions associated with datatypes and to distinguish them from conceptual notions. Specifications for the use ofimplementation notions are deemed to be outside the scope of this International Standard, which is concerned solely with theidentification and distinction of datatypes.This International Standard specifies the required elements of mappings between the LI datatypes and the datatypcs of some otherlanguage. This International Standard does not specify the precise form of a mapping, but rather the required information contentof a mapping.