*BSD News Article 12023


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From: atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil (Randall Atkinson)
Subject: How to vote on POSIX Printing
Message-ID: <C36JrI.E8K@ra.nrl.navy.mil>
Sender: usenet@ra.nrl.navy.mil
Organization: Naval Research Laboratory, DC
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1993 22:28:29 GMT
Lines: 90

  A few weeks back, during USENIX in fact, there was much discussion
on the net of the POSIX intent to standardise the not widely used
printing mechanisms defined by the Palladium system as the standard
UNIX printing commands.

  Palladium was at one time widely installed at MIT, but large
portions of MIT removed it because Palladium was unusable.  Palladium
is significantly different from the existing practice of System V's
"lp" and friends and is also different from the existing practice of
BSD's "lpr" and friends.  At the moment, the Palladium momentum
appears to be coming from the Closed Software Foundation (OSF) as a
way to make existing BSD and System V systems "non-standard" and to
give the OSF companies a marketing advantage versus vendors who
already have implemented either System V or BSD printing.

  YOU have a chance to vote on the proposed POSIX standard.  If you
are a member of the IEEE or the IEEE Computer Society, your vote
officially is counted.  If you aren't a member of either one, then you
can still participate and provide input and the standards committee
does have to respond to your ballot input.

  I'd like to encourage all (especially folks who USE printing on a
UNIX system) to join the balloting group and carefully vote on the
ballot.  If you look it over and want to junk all of the existing
practice that we know works reasonably well, then vote in favour of
the standard.  If, however, you agree with those of us who believe in
standardising existing practice that works reasonably well, you can
vote no and provide comments on why you think that Palladium should be
dropped in favour of lp/lpr/lprm/cancel/lpq/lpstat/lpadmin.

  I've made up an unofficial facsimile of the original official IEEE
ballot group application form and have appended it below.  If you want
to participate, fill this out and fax or postal mail it to the IEEE so
that you will be added to the balloting group.  Alternately you can
telephone the IEEE and ask them to send you an official form via
postal mail.  All forms are due at the IEEE (not postmark date) by 26
March 1993.

  Please forward this to others you think might be interested.
Maximum participation is in everyone's best interest.

Thanks for your time and support,

  Ran
  atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil


Operating Systems Standards Committee
IEEE Computer Society

BALLOT APPLICATION for POSIX.7.1

Return Deadline: 26 March 1993 (at the IEEE office, not a postmark date)

Standard:	P1003.7.1 Standard for Information Technology,
		Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)
		Part 3: Systems Administration
		Amendment: Print Administration

SCOPE: Provide utility program interfaces, service interfaces, and
      managed object definitions for use and administration of printing
      services.  Includes interfaces and managed objects for both
      computer users and system administrators.  Base documents for the
      work will be the Palladium printing system, the "lp" printer
      interfaces, and the "lpr" printer interfaces.

YOUR CATEGORY OF INTEREST (mark only one):
_____ USER	_____ PRODUCER	_____ ACADEMIC	_____ GENERAL INTEREST

YOUR NAME: 	______________________________________________________
YOUR COMPANY:	______________________________________________________
POSTAL ADDRESS:		______________________________________________
CITY/STATE/COUNTRY/ZIP: ______________________________________________
TELEPHONE: (___)____________	FAX: (___)____________
EMAIL ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________

IEEE Member Number or IEEE Computer Society Member Number: _________________
	Check here if not a member of either of these:	   _________

Note: only IEEE or IEEE Computer Society members may officially vote on
  IEEE proposed standards.  Non-members MAY participate as non-voters.

YOUR SIGNATURE: ___________________________  DATE: ___________________

Return this form to:	Annamarie Kaczmarek
			IEEE Standards Office
			445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 1331
			Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331
			(or FAX to:  +1-908-562-1571 )