To ANSI or not to ANSI

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <26738 at shamash.cdc.com> paul at u02.svl.cdc.com (Paul Kohlmiller) writes:
>I don't know when but I think we know how we will know that it is  time. It
>will be after NIST approves a validation suite and then the phrase ANSI-
>conforming might mean something.

"NIST's validation suite conforming" is not at all guaranteed to mean
"ANSI standard conforming", and in fact two of the three major bidders
for the suite dropped out, largely due to concerns over the way NIST
was going about the acquisition.  They essentially were insisting on
a suite being contributed free, plus NIST being allowed to make any
changes they felt like, which given their record with POSIX would very
likely mean that they would add requirements counter to the intent of
the ANSI standard.