Usenet 1994 January/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicjanuary1994.iso/sources/std_unix/volume.12/text0025.txt

Text File | 1989-01-07 | 15.3 KB | 481 lines

This is the latest in a series of similar comp.std.unix articles.
Corrections and additions to this article are solicited.


Access information is given in this article for the following standards:
IEEE 1003.1 (operating system interface), 1003.2 (shell and utilities),
    1003.3 (testing and verification), 1003.4 (real time).
NBS FIPS.
/usr/group working groups on distributed file system, network interface,
    graphics/windows, database, internationalization,
    performance measurements, realtime, security, and super computing.
X3H3.6 (display committee)
X3J11 (C language)
/usr/group Standard
System V Interface Definition (SVID, or The Purple Book)
X/OPEN PORTABILITY GUIDE (The Green Book)
4.3BSD Manuals


UNIX is a Registered Trademark of AT&T.
POSIX and IEEE are trademarks of the Institute of Electrical
    and Electronic Engineers, Inc.
X/OPEN is a licensed trademark of the X/OPEN Group Members.


The IEEE P1003 Portable Operating System Interface for Computer
Environments Committee is sometimes known colloquially as the UNIX
Standards Committee.  They published the 1003.1 "POSIX" Trial Use
Standard in April 1986.  According to its Foreword:

    The purpose of this document is to define a standard
    operating system interface and environment based on the
    UNIX Operating System documentation to support application
    portability at the source level.  This is intended for
    systems implementors and applications software developers.

Published copies are available at $19.95, with bulk purchasing discounts
available.  Call the IEEE Computer Society in Los Angeles

        714-821-8380

and ask for Book #967.  Unfortunately, this only works for multiple copies.
But the following mail address works for single copies:

        IEEE Computer Society
        P.O. Box 80452
        Worldway Postal Center
        Los Angeles, Ca. 90080

Include a check for $19.95 + $4 for shipping and handling.  For UPS
shipping, add another $4.  Or contact:

        IEEE Service Center
        445 Hoes Ln.
        Piscataway, NJ 08854

and ask for "IEEE 1003.1 Trial Use Standard" - stock number SH10546.

The Trial Use Standard will be available for comments for a period
such as a year.  The current target for a Full Use Standard is Spring 1988.
The current draft, Draft 12, is being balloted on starting 15 November 1987.
It's too late to join the balloting group, but written objections or comments
are still solicited during the thirty days following that date from everyone
and will be fully considered.  The main difference is that only ballots from
the formal balloting group will count toward the numeric goals for returning
ballots and yes yotes.  The appropriate address is:

        Computer Society Secretariat
        IEEE Standards Office
        345 East 47th St.
        New York, NY 10017

The possible categories for voting are:  yes, perhaps with comments;
no, with objections, and perhaps with comments; and yes because of
lack of time or expertise (this last one makes no sense unless you
are in the official balloting quorum).  Text of comments and objections
should organized by section of Draft 12, with each major section
at the beginning of a new page.  Each remark should be marked as to
whether it is an objection or a non-binding comment, and numbered
within those categories.


IEEE has initiated the process to have the 1003.1 effort brought into
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) arena.  IEEE
1003.1 Draft 12 is also a ``Draft Proposed International Standard (ISO DP).''
The convenor is Jim Isaak:  see below for his address.

The National Bureau of Standards is producing a Federal Information
Processing Standard (FIPS) based on IEEE 1003.1.  It will probably
be available before the Full Use Standard, and may reflect Draft 12,
rather than the final 1003.1 standard.  For information, contact:

        Roger Martin
        National Bureau of Standards
        Building 225
        Room B266
        Gaithersburg, MD  20899
        [phone]


Machine readable copies of the IEEE 1003.1 Trial Use Standard are not
and will not be available.  The same applies to copies of later drafts.

There is a paper mailing list by which interested parties may get
copies of drafts of the standard.  To get on it, or to submit comments
directly to the committee, mail to:

        James Isaak
        Chairperson, IEEE/CS P1003
        Digital Equipment
        ZK03-3/Y25
        110 Spit Brook Rd.
        Nashua, NH  03062-2698

        Tel.: [phone]
        Fax.: [phone]

        decvax!isaak

Sufficiently interested parties may join the working group.

The term POSIX also applies to the other P1003 subcommittees:
    group    subject        co-chairs
    1003.2    shell and utilities Hal Jespersen (UniSoft), Don Cragun (Sun)
    1003.3    verification    Roger Martin (NBS), Carol Raye (AT&T)
    1003.4    real time    Bill Corwin (Intel)

Inquiries regarding 1003.2, 1003.3, and 1003.4 should go to the same address
as for 1003.1.


The next scheduled meetings of the P1003 working groups are,
in 1987 and 1988:

Dec.    7-11    San Diego, CA
P1003.1 group will meet evenings on 7 and 8 and all day on the 11th.
P1003.2 group will meet 7-10 December.

April 1988    Washington, DC

Here are some details from Hal Jespersen regarding P1003.2:

The IEEE P1003.2 "Shell and Utilities" Working Group is developing a
proposed standard to complement the 1003.1 POSIX standard.  It will
consist of

    a shell command language (currently planned to be based on the
    Bourne Shell),

    groups of utility programs, or commands,

    programmatic interfaces to the shell (system(), popen()) and
    related facilities (regular expressions, file name expansion,
    etc.)

    defined environments (variables, file hierarchies, etc) that
    applications may rely upon

    utilities for installing application programs onto conforming
    systems

which will allow application programs to be developed out of existing
pieces, in the UNIX tradition.  The scope of the standard emphasizes
commands and features that are more typically used by shell scripts or
C language programs than those that are oriented to the terminal user
with windows, mice, visual shells, and so forth.

There has been some controversy in the Working Group about clarifying
the scope of the 1003.2 standard in regard to its relationship with
1003.1.  The Working Group is attempting to produce a standard that
will assume the structure and philosophy of a POSIX system is
available, but it will not require a fully conforming implementation as
a base.  For example, it should be feasible to eventually produce a
1003.2 interface on a V7 system, or on a system very close to POSIX,
but missing a few crucial features (as long as the shell and utilities
didn't need them).  However, the proposed standard will *not* be
unnecessarily watered down simply to allow non-POSIX systems to conform.

The group is currently seeking proposals for groupings of commands that
may be offered by implementors.  As groups are identified, command
descriptions will be solicited.  There is no requirement that the commands
be in System V or BSD today, but they should realistically be commands
that are commonly found in most existing implementations.


There are three Institutional Representatives to P1003:  John Quarterman
from USENIX, Heinz Lycklama from /usr/group, and Mike Lambert from X/OPEN.

As the one from USENIX, one of my functions is to get comments from the
USENIX membership and the general public to the committee.  One of the
ways I try to do that is by moderating this newsgroup, comp.std.unix
An article related to this one appeared in the September/October 1986
;login: (The USENIX Association Newsletter).  I'm also currently on the
USENIX Board of Directors.  Comments, suggestions, etc., may be sent to

        John S. Quarterman
        Texas Internet Consulting
        701 Brazos, Suite 500
        Austin TX 78701-3243
        [phone]
        uunet!usenix!jsq
        [e-mail]

For comp.std.unix:
Comments:    uunet!std-unix-request [e-mail]
Submissions:    uunet!std-unix        [e-mail]

The September/October 1987 issue of CommUNIXations (the /usr/group newsletter)
contains a report by Heinz Lycklama on the /usr/group Technical Committee
working groups which met in September 1987.

If you are interested in starting another working group, contact
Heinz Lycklama:

        Heinz Lycklama
        Interactive Systems Corp.
        2401 Colorado Ave., 3rd Floor
        Santa Monica, CA 90404
        [phone]
        decvax!cca!ima!heinz


Here is contact information for /usr/group working groups as taken from
the CommUNIXations article mentioned above, and updated by later information
from Heinz Lycklama.

/usr/group Working Group on Distributed File System:
    Art Sabsevitz            Frederick Glover
    AT&T Information Systems    MK02-1/H10
    190 River Road            Digital Equipment Corporation
    Summit, NJ  07933        Continental Boulevard
    201-522-6248            Merrimack, NH  03054-0430
    attunix!bump            603-884-5111
                    decvax!fglover

/usr/group Working Group on Network Interface:
    Steve Albert
    AT&T Information Systems
    190 River Road, Rm. A-114
    Summit, NJ  07901
    [phone]
    attunix!ssa

/usr/group Working Group on Internationalization:
    John Wu                Laurie Goudie
    Charles River Data Systems    Santa Cruz Operation
    983 Concord St.,        400 Encinal
    Framingham, MA 01701        Santa Cruz, CA 95060
    617-626-1000            408-458-1422

/usr/group Working Group on Graphics/Windows:
    Tom Greene
    Apollo Computer, Inc.
    330 Billerica Road
    Chelmsford, MA  01824
    [phone], ext. 7581

/usr/group Working Group on Realtime:
    Bill Corwin
    Intel Corp.
    5200 Elam Young Pkwy
    Hillsboro, OR 97123
    [phone]

/usr/group Working Group on Database:
    Val Skalabrin
    Unify Corp.
    1111 Howe Ave.
    Sacramento, CA 95825
    [phone]


/usr/group Working Group on Performance Measurements:
    Ram Chelluri            Dave Hinnant
    AT&T Computer Systems        SCI Systems, Inc.
    Room E15B            Ste 325, Pamlico Bldg
    4513 Western Ave.        Research Triangle Pk, NC 27709
    Lisle, IL 60532            [phone]
    [phone]

/usr/group Working Group on Security:
    Steve Sutton            Ms. Jeanne Baccash
    Consultant, Addamax        AT&T UNIX Systems Engineering
    1107 S. Orchard            190 River Road
    Urbana, IL  61801        Summit, NJ  07901
    217-344-0996            201-522-6028
                    attunix!jeanne

/usr/group Working Group on Super Computing:
    Karen Sheaffer            Robin O'Neill
    Sandia National Laboratory    Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
    P.O. Box 969            P.O. Box 5509, L560
    Livermore, CA  94550        Livermore, CA  94550
    415-422-3431            415-422-0973
                    oneill#[e-mail] Co-chair


The X3H3.6 display management committee has recently formed to develop
a model to support current and future window management systems, yet
is not based directly on any existing system.  The chair solicits
help and participation:

        Georges Grinstein
        wanginst!ulowell!grinstein


The Abstract of the 1003.1 Trial Use Standard adds:

    This interface is a complement to the C Programming Language
    in the C Information Bulletin prepared by Technical Committee X3J11
    of the Accredited Standards Committee X3, Information Processing
    Systems, further specifying an environment for portable application
    software.

X3J11 is sometimes known as the C Standards Committee.  Their liaison to
P1003 is

        Don Kretsch
        AT&T
        190 River Road
        Summit, NJ 07901

A contact for information regarding publications and working groups is

        Thomas Plum
        Vice Chair, X3J11 Committee
        Plum Hall Inc.
        1 Spruce Avenue
        Cardiff, New Jersey 08232

The current document may be ordered from

        Global Press
        2625 Hickory St.
        P.O. Box 2504
        Santa Anna, CA 92707-3783
        U.S.A.
        800-854-7179
        [phone] (from outside the U.S., ask for extension 245.)
        TELEX 692 373

Ask for the X3.159 draft standard.  The price is $65.


The /usr/group Standard is a principal ancestor of P1003.1, X/OPEN,
and X3J11.  It may be ordered for $15.00 from:

        /usr/group Standards Committee
        4655 Old Ironsides Drive, Suite 200
        Santa Clara, California 95054
        Tel: [phone]
        Fax: [phone]

/usr/group also publishes an eight page document, ``Your Guide to POSIX,''
explaining what IEEE 1003 is, and a nineteen page document, ``POSIX Explored,''
about technical aspects of IEEE 1003.1, and its relations to other standards
and historical implementations.  Contact /usr/group at the above address
for details.


The System V Interface Definition (The Purple Book, or SVID).
This is the AT&T standard and is one of the most frequently-used
references of the IEEE 1003 committee.

        AT&T Customer Information Center
        Attn:  Customer Service Representative
        P.O. Box 19901
        Indianapolis, IN 46219
        U.S.A.

        800-432-6600 (Inside U.S.A.)
        800-255-1242 (Inside Canada)
        317-352-8557 (Outside U.S.A. and Canada)

    System V Interface Definition, Issue 2
    should be ordered by the following select codes:

    Select Code:    Volume:        Topics:
    320-011        Volume I    Base System
                    Kernel Extension
    320-012        Volume II    Basic Utilities Extension
                    Advanced Utilities Extension
                    Software Development Extension
                    Administered System Extension
                    Terminal Volume Interface Extension
    320-013        Volume III    Base System Addendum
                    Terminal Interface Extension
                    Network Services Extension
    307-131        I, II, III    (all three volumes)

The price is about 37 U.S. dollars for each volume or $84 for all three.
Major credit cards are accepted for telephone orders:  mail orders
should include a check or money order, payable to AT&T.


The X/OPEN PORTABILITY GUIDE (The Green Book)
is another reference frequently used by IEEE 1003.

The X/OPEN Group is "Ten of the world's major information system
suppliers" (at time of publication, Bull, DEC, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard,
ICL, NIXDORF, Olivetti, Philips, Siemens and Unisys and subsequently
augmented by AT&T) who have produced a document intended to promote
the writing of portable applications.  They closely follow both SVID
and POSIX, and cite the /usr/group standard as contributing, but
X/OPEN's books cover a wider area than any of those.

The book is published by

        Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
        Book Order Department
        P.O. Box 1991
        1000 BZ Amsterdam
        The Netherlands

and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by:

        Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc.
        52 Vanderbilt Avenue
        New York, NY 10017
        U.S.A.

There are currently five volumes:
    1) System V Specification Commands and Utilities
    2) System V Specification System Calls and Libraries
    3) System V Specification Supplementary Definitions
    4) Programming Languages
    5) Data Management

They take a large number of credit cards and other forms of payment.

Comments, suggestions, error reports, etc., for Issue 2 of the Green Book
may be mailed directly to:

        [e-mail]
        uunet!mcvax!inset!xopen!xpg2

Information about X/OPEN can be requested from:

        Mike Lambert
        Technical Director
        X/OPEN Ltd
        c/o ICL BRA01
        Lovelace Road
        Bracknell
        Berkshire
        England
        [phone]
        [e-mail]
        uunet!mcvax!inset!xopen!mgl


Finally, 4.2BSD and 4.3BSD have influenced POSIX in a number of areas.
The best reference on them is the 4.3BSD manuals, published by USENIX.
An order form may be obtained from:

        Howard Press
        c/o USENIX Association
        P.O. Box 2299
        Berkeley, CA 94710

        415-528-8649
        {ucbvax,decvax}!usenix!office

4.3BSD User's Manual Set (3 volumes)        $25.00
    User's Reference Manual
    User's Supplementary Documents
    Master Index

4.3BSD Programmer's Manual Set (3 volumes)    $25.00
    Programmer's Reference Maual
    Programmer's Supplementary Documents, Volume 1
    Programmer's Supplementary Documents, Volume 2

4.3BSD System Manager's Manual (1 volume)    $10.00

Unfortunately, there are some license restrictions.
Contact the USENIX office for details.

Volume-Number: Volume 12, Number 26