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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 )