Access to UNIX-Related Standards

Wed Oct 29 05:08:02 AEST 1986

This is the latest in a series of similar mod.std.unix articles.

Access information is given in this article for the following standards:
IEEE 1003.1 (POSIX), 1003.2 (shell/tools), 1003.3 (verification)
/usr/group working groups on networking, graphics, database,
	internationalization, performance measurements, realtime, and security
X3H3.6 (display committee)
X3J11 (C language)
/usr/group Standard
System V Interface Definition
X/OPEN PORTABILITY GUIDE

The IEEE P1003 Portable Operating System for Computer Environments Committee
is sometimes known colloquially as the UNIX Standards Committee.
They have recently produced the 1003.1 "POSIX" Trial Use Standard.
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.  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 Fall 1987.
IEEE has initiated the process to have the 1003.1 effort brought into
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) arena.

Machine readable copies of the Trial Use Standard are not and will 
not be available.  A machine-readable "representation" of a draft
between the Trial Use and Full Use Standards may be available when
it is ready (probably in 1987).

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
	Charles River Data Systems
	983 Concord St.
	Framingham, MA 01701
	decvax!frog!jim

Sufficiently interested parties may join the working group.

The next scheduled meetings of the P1003.1 working group are

December  8-12	Atlantic City, NJ	Bally's Hotel & Casino
	(Same time/location as X3J11 C Standards Committee meeting)
	Host: Concurrent Computer Corporation (previously Perkin Elmer)

April	22-24	Toronto			Host: IBM
		(Canadian UNIX Conference)

June	9-12	Phoenix (USENIX Conference)	No Host yet

Aug/Sept 31-4   East Coast Probably Washington DC area	No Host yet
 OR Sept 14-18	Boston (Same Time/loc as X3J11)
(Sept 7th is Labor day, and that week is ISO TC97 SC22 meeting in Wash DC)

There is also a balloting group (which intersects with the working group).
This is more difficult.  Contact the committee chair for details.
I will repost them in this newsgroup if there is sufficient interest.

Related working groups are
	group	subject		co-chairs
	1003.2	shell and tools	Hal Jespersen (Amdahl), Don Cragun (Sun)
	1003.3	verification	Roger Martin (NBS), Carol Raye (AT&T)

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

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

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.

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.

Meetings are normally held in conjunction with the 1003.1 group and
have a large membership overlap.  The next meeting is 12/8/86, and
possibly the morning of the 9th, in Atlantic City.  Future meetings
will generally be held on the day or two preceding 1003.1.

There are two Institutional Representatives to P1003:  John Quarterman
from USENIX and Heinz Lycklama from /usr/group.  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 (currently known as mod.std.unix,
eventually as comp.std.unix).  An article related to this one just
appeared in the September/October 1986 ;login: (The USENIX Association
Newsletter).  I'm also currently on the USENIX Board of Directors.

The May/June 1986 issue of CommUNIXations (the /usr/group newsletter)
contains a report by Heinz Lycklama on the /usr/group Technical Committee
working groups which met in February 1986 on the areas of Networking,
Internationalization, Graphics, Realtime, Database, Performance, and
the proposed new group on Security.

Here is contact information for /usr/group working groups as taken from
the CommUNIXations article mentioned above.  If you are interested in
starting another working group, contact Heinz Lycklama at the address below.

/usr/group Working Group on Networking:
	Dave Buck
	D.L. Buck & Associates, Inc.
	6920 Santa Teresa Bldg, #108
	San Jose, CA 95119
	(408)972-2825

/usr/group Working Group on Internationalization:
	Brian Boyle			Karen Barnes
	Novon Research Group		Hewlett-Packard Co.
	537 Panorama Dr.		19447 Pruneridge Ave.
	San Francisco, CA 94131		M/S 47U2
	(415)641-9800			Cupertino, CA 95014
					(408) 725-8111, ext 2438

/usr/group Working Group on Graphics:
	Heinz Lycklama
	Interactive Systems Corp.
	2401 Colorado Ave., 3rd Fl.
	Santa Monica, CA 90404
	(213)453-8649

/usr/group Working Group on Realtime:
	Bill Corwin			Ben Patel
	Intel Corp.			EDS Corp.
	5200 Elam Young Pkwy		P.O. Box 5121
	Hillsboro, OR 97123		23077 Greenfield
	(503)640-7588			Southfield, MI 48075
					(313)443-3460

/usr/group Working Group on Database:
	Val Skalabrin
	Unify Corp.
	1111 Howe Ave.
	Sacramento, CA 95825
	(916)920-9092

/usr/group Working Group on Performance Measurements:
	Ram Celluri			Dave Hinant
	AT&T Computer Systems		SCI Systems, Inc.
	Room E15B			Ste 325, Pamlico Bldg
	4513 Western Ave.		Research Triangle Pk, NC 27709
	Lisle, IL 60532			(919)549-8334
	(312)810-6223

/usr/group Working Group on Security:
	Steve Sutton
	Computer Systems Div.
	Gould Inc.
	1101 East University
	Urbana, IL 61801
	(217)384-8500

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

There is frequent discussion of X3J11 in the USENET newsgroup mod.std.c,
which see.  (That newsgroup will eventually be known as comp.std.c.)

The /usr/group Standard is the principle ancestor of P1003.1:

	/usr/group Standards Committee
	4655 Old Ironsides Drive, Suite 200
	Santa Clara, California 95050

The price is still $15.00.

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

	System V Interface Definition, Issue 2
	Select Codes 320-011 (Volume 1) and 320-012 (Volume 2)
	or Select Code 307-127 (both volumes).
	AT&T Customer Information Center
	2833 North Franklin Road
	Indianapolis, IN 46219
	1-800-432-6600, operator 77.

The price is about 37 U.S. dollars for each volume or $52 for the pair.
Major credit cards are accepted for telephone orders:  mail orders
should include a check or money order.  Previous SVID owners should
have received a discount coupon to upgrade to Release 2 for only $37.

Volume 1 is essentially equivalent to the whole previous SVID;
Volume 2 is mostly commands and a few add-ons (e.g. curses).
A third volume is expected in the last quarter of 1986 to cover new
items in System V Release 3, such as streams and networking.  There may
be an upgrade discount similar to the previous one.  A draft copy is
reputed to be available now to source licensees.

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

X/OPEN is "A Group of European Computer Manufacturers" who have produced
a document intended to promote the writing of portable facilities.
(They now have member computer manufacturers from outside Europe.)
Their flyer remarks (in five languages), "Now we all speak the same
language in Europe."

The book is published by

	Elsevier Science Publishers
	Book Order Department
	PO Box 211
	1000 AE Amsterdam
	The Netherlands

or, for those in the U.S.A. or Canada:

	Elsevier Science Publishers Co Inc.
	PO Box 1663
	Grand Central Station
	New York, NY 10163

The price is Dfl 275,00 or USD 75.00.  According to the order form,
"This price includes the costs of one update which will be mailed
automatically upon publication."  They take a large number of credit
cards and other forms of payment.

Corrections and additions to this article are solicited.
Oh, yes:  "UNIX is a Registered Trademark of AT&T."
And POSIX is a trademark of IEEE.

Volume-Number: Volume 8, Number 6