National foreword

This British Standard reproduces verbatim ISO 2382-5:1989 and implements it as the UK national standard.

This British Standard is published under the direction of the Information Technology Systems Standards Policy Committee which has the responsibility to:

aid enquirers to understand the text;
present to the responsible international committee any enquiries on interpretation, or proposals for change, and keep UK interests informed;
monitor related international and European developments and promulgate them in the UK.

NOTE International and European Standards, as well as overseas standards, are available from BSI Sales Department, BSI, Linford Wood, Milton Keynes, MK14 6LE.

A British Standard does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users of British Standards are responsible for their correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard does not of itself confer immunity from legal obligations.

Summary of pages

This document comprises a front cover, an inside front cover, pages i and ii, the ISO title page, pages ii to viii, pages 1 to 18 and a back cover.

This standard has been updated (see copyright date) and may have had amendments incorporated. This will be indicated in the amendment table on the inside front cover.

Committees responsible for this British Standard

This British Standard was prepared by the Information Technology Systems Standards Policy Committee (IST/-), upon which the following bodies were represented:

Association for Payment Clearing Services

BEAMA Ltd. (GAMBICA)

British Computer Society

British Office Systems and Stationery Federation

British Telecommunications plc

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Computing Services Association

Department of Trade and Industry (Information Technology Division)

Department of Trade and Industry (National Physical Laboratory)

EEA (The Electronics and Business Equipment Association)

Electricity Supply Industry in England and Wales

Engineering Employers' Federation

Engineering Equipment and Materials Users' Association

HM Customs and Excise

HM Treasury (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency)

Health and Safety Executive

Information Technology Users' Standards Association

Institute of Administrative Management

Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators

Institute of Purchasing and Supply

Institution of Electrical Engineers

Inter-universities Computing Committee

Library Association

Ministry of Defence

National Computer Users' Forum

National Computing Centre Ltd.

National Health Service

Simpler Trade Procedures Board (SITPRO)

Telecommunication Engineering and Manufacturing Association

User Standards Forum for Information Technology (Institute of Data Processing Management)

Coopted member

This British Standard, having been prepared under the direction of the Information Technology Systems Standards Policy Committee, was published under the authority of the Board of BSI and comes into effect on 30 November 1990

The following BSI references relate to the work on this standard:

Committee reference IST/-Draft announced in BSI News November 1990

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

Draft International Standards adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for approval before their acceptance as International Standards by the ISO Council. They are approved in accordance with ISO procedures requiring at least 75 % approval by the member bodies voting.

International Standard ISO 2382-5 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 97, Information processing systems.

This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 2382-5 : 1974), of which it constitutes a technical revision.

Introduction

Information processing gives rise to numerous international exchanges of both an intellectual and a material nature. These exchanges often become difficult, either because of the great variety of terms used in various fields or languages to express the same concept, or because of the absence or imprecision of the definitions of useful concepts.

To avoid misunderstandings and to facilitate such exchanges it is essential to clarify the concepts, to select terms to be used in various languages or in various countries to express the same concept, and to establish definitions providing satisfactory equivalents for the various terms in different languages.

ISO 2382 was initially based mainly on the usage to be found in the Vocabulary of Information Processing which was established and published by the International Federation for Information Processing and the International Computation Centre, and in the American National Dictionary for Information Processing systems and its earlier editions published by the American National Standards Institute (formerly known as the American Standards Association). Published and draft International Standards relating to information processing of other international organizations (such as the International Telecommunication Union and the International Electrotechnical Commission) as well as published and draft national standards have also been considered.

The purpose of ISO 2382 is to provide definitions that are rigorous, uncomplicated and which can be understood by all concerned. The scope of each concept defined has been chosen to provide a definition that is suitable for general application. In those circumstances, where a restricted application is concerned, the definition may need to be more specific.

However, while it is possible to maintain the self-consistency of individual parts, the reader is warned that the dynamics of language and the problems associated with the standardization and maintenance of vocabularies may introduce duplications and inconsistencies between parts.

Section 1: General

1.1 Scope

This part of ISO 2382 is intended to facilitate international communication in information processing. It presents, in two languages, terms and definitions of selected concepts relevant to the field of information processing and identifies relationships between the entries.

In order to facilitate their translation into other languages, the definitions are drafted so as to avoid, as far as possible, any peculiarity attached to a language.

ISO 2382 (which will comprise some twenty-eight parts) defines concepts relating to certain forms of data representation, to representation systems, and to notations which provide for some forms of representation.

1.2 Normative references

1.3 Principles and rules followed

Section 2: Terms and definitions

05 Representation of data

BS ISO 2382-5:1989

Information processing systems. Vocabulary - Representation of data

Current

Published:

30 Nov 1990