Standards Update, Part 9: IEEE 1003.3 (POSIX Guide)

[Shane P. McCarron]

[ These Standards Updates are published after each IEEE 1003
meeting, and are commissioned by the USENIX Association.
See Part 1 for contact information.  -mod ]



      An update on UNIX|= Standards Activities - Part 9

                    POSIX 1003.3 Update

                     November 18, 1988

           Shane P. McCarron, NAPS International

1003.3 - Testing and Verification

This POSIX working group met along with the others in
Honolulu in October.  The agenda included a status report on
NIST activities, review of previously assigned action items,
developing a strategy for future work with other P1003
(POSIX) working groups, revision of Draft 7.1 document, and
assigning new action items.

Roger Martin (NIST* & P1003.3 Chair) gave a status report on
the current NIST FIPS** and their Conformance Testing
Policies for the POSIX FIPS.  He stated that this "Initial"
POSIX FIPS has been approved and they intend to revise the
FIPS now that the P1003.1 Standard is finalized.  The NIST
Test Suite, PCTS, has been provided to NTIS (National
Technical Information Service) for public distribution at a
price of $2500 and is being distributed since September 5,
1988.  Its distribution was awaiting FIPS approval.  Roger
Martin also presented a proposed schedule for a series of
Application Portability Workshops sponsored by NIST.  He
described a workshop that had taken place in September 1988
covering Shell & Tools, System Administration and X Windows.
One of the areas to be covered in a future Application
Portability Profile FIPS and workshop include the Terminal
Interface Extension.  The workshops are intended for
implementors and users.

The remainder of the meeting concentrated on rewriting and
restructuring the Draft 7.1 document, including test
assertions.

__________

  |= UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T in the U.S. and
    other countries.

  * NIST was formerly the National Bureau of Standards, NBS

 ** FIPS is Federal Information Processing Standard
    developed by NIST


                           - 2 -

During the week of meetings one small group of Test
Assertion Reviewers                   continued to update
the 1003.3 Draft 7.1 assertions.

Two other small groups concentrated on rewriting and
restructuring 1003.3 Draft 7.1 document. One group's
emphasis was the development of a 1003.3 Generic Test Method
chapters (i.e. terminology, testing levels, generic PCTS
output). The second group's emphasis was in developing
1003.1 specific Test Method sections.

The P1003.3 group is gearing up for balloting this standard
in early 1989.  Each P1003.3 member is part of the "mock"
ballot group, identifying and formulating any possible
objections.

The group defined the following ballot schedule:
11/18/88  1003.3 Draft 8.0 "MOCK" BALLOT
12/31/88  "MOCK" BALLOT CLOSED
1/9-13/89  REVIEW "MOCK" BALLOT RESULTS AT NEXT MEETING
2/15/89    1003.3 Draft 9.0 IEEE BALLOT
4/3/89     1003.3 BALLOT CLOSED

Future work of the P1003.3 committee was also addressed.
The P1003.3 Working Group wants to influence the other P1003
Working Groups into writing testable standards. To achieve
this, a liaison program will be implemented to have members
from P1003.3 working in a liaison fashion in each of the
other working groups.

The P1003.3 working group Project Authorization (PAR) will
need to be revised in order for the group to develop an
overall Test Method standard and the development of specific
standards for each appropriate 1003 activity.

The Watchdog committee contact for 1003.3 is Doris Lebovits.
She can be reached at:

          Doris Lebovits
          AT&T
          Rm 5-211
          190 River Rd,
          Summit, NJ  07901
          lebovits at attunix.att.com
          attunix!lebovits
          +1 (201) 522-6586


Volume-Number: Volume 15, Number 45