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Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP id AA7322 ; Mon, 18 Jan 93 10:51:52 EST Xref: sserve comp.org.sug:621 comp.org.usenix:3151 comp.unix.wizards:28285 comp.unix.bsd:10220 Newsgroups: comp.org.sug,comp.org.usenix,comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.bsd,news.sys-admin Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!ra!atkinson From: Ran Atkinson <atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil> Subject: IMPORTANT: POSIX threatens our use of lp/lpr and friends Message-ID: <C15sst.JqA@ra.nrl.navy.mil> Sender: usenet@ra.nrl.navy.mil Organization: Naval Research Laboratory, DC Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 15:38:52 GMT Lines: 62 The IEEE has a group called "POSIX" that is working on UNIX-related standards that eventually go to ISO and have a strong impact on what the UNIX systems that we all use look/behave like. In the past there was a clear emphasis on standardising the existing practices of the UNIX community. This lead to IEEE standard 1003.1 which standardised the core of the UNIX system interfaces (Section 2 of the UNIX manual) and IEEE standard 1003.2 which standardised existing practice for the shell and command line utilities. These were both mostly good for the UNIX community because they enhanced the portability of existing software and users. Now another subgroup of POSIX, namely POSIX.7 which works on system administration stuff, has proposed standardising printing commands and interfaces based on the PALLADIUM software developed by certain firms of the Closed Software Foundation. They propose to do this despite the widespread use of lp/lpr/lprm/lpq/lpstat/lpadmin within the UNIX world. If they succeed, you may expect that your existing printing commands WILL eventually go away and be replaced by this Palladium stuff. We users and administrators will lose big time if this marketing ploy within POSIX succeeds. The Palladium supporters maintain that it was developed and used at MIT. However, when someone else from NRL went up to investigate this first hand, he found out that it is not widely used, that MIT disowns Palladium, and that a number of parts of MIT removed Palladium because it was unusable. If this becomes the standard, we're all in trouble. There IS a way to prevent this. Namely get on the balloting group for the POSIX.7 standard. ANYONE who breathes can get on the balloting group. If you are an IEEE member then give your membership number. If not, call up the IEEE and say that you are "a party of interest for the POSIX standards and have experience with UNIX". Ask for the IEEE Standards Office and when you reach them ask to be put on the mailing list to join the IEEE POSIX balloting groups. Your votes can make a difference. In the US, the IEEE Standards Office can be reached at (800) 678-IEEE (ask for Annamarie Kaczmarek) or by FAX at (908) 562-1571 (attn: Annamarie Kaczmarek) or via Postal Mail at: Annamarie Kaczmarek IEEE Standards Office 445 Hoes Lane PO Box 1331 Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 USA Once the ballot goes out, folks in the balloting group can object to basing the standard on Palladium and state that you "want the standard to be based on existing practice as demonstrated by UNIX System V and BSD UNIX rather than Palladium which is not existing practice and is known not to work well." Please recirculate this note to folks you think might be of interest and circulate it at USENIX and other UNIX User's gatherings. Thanks, Ran atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil