Standards Update (2 of 4): C Language
Moderator, John S. Quarterman
std-unix at longway.TIC.COM
Mon Jan 25 03:18:56 AEST 1988
Standards Update
An update on UNIX and C Standards Activities
January 21, 1988
Written for the USENIX Association
by Shane P. McCarron, NAPS Inc.
- C Language Standard
In addition to the P1003 standards activities, the work
of the X3J11 standards committee holds particular
interest for people in the un*x community. This is the
group that is defining the ANSI X3.159 C Language
Standard. They have been working on this for quite a
while now, and are very close to resolution. They went
into their first public review period last spring, and
have just recently finished responding to all of the
comments that were submitted at that time.
Based on information I have about the December meeting
of X3J11, here is what is happening in the future:
- Around January 8th, 1988 the second public review
draft will be completed.
- Soon after that, the second (2 month) public
review period will begin. As with last time, the
standard will be available to the public through
Global Press in Washington, DC.
- This public review will close in time for the
comments to get out to the committee members
before the April meeting.
- At that meeting, the committee will break down
into subgroups and review the comments. There
will be great resistance to making any substantive
(non-editorial) changes to the standard. If there
are any substantive changes made, it will result
in another public review period, which will delay
the standard for at least one calendar year.
- Assuming that there are no substantive changes to
the standard after the next public review period,
there should be a ratified standard before the end
of 1988.
If the C Language Standard can be completed before the
end of the year, it could mean a lot for POSIX system
implementors. Since the .1 standard will not be really
C Language, January 21, 1988 Shane P. McCarron, NAPS Inc.
Standards Update - 2 - USENIX Association
a standard until June, it is unlikely that vendors will
be able to complete an implementation before the end of
1988 in any event. If they could release a system that
supported both Standard C and POSIX, it would be a real
shot in the arm for application developers. A delay of
another year on Standard C would mean that application
developers must write code under POSIX that could very
well be broken under an ANSI C Conforming compiler.
C Language, January 21, 1988 Shane P. McCarron, NAPS Inc.
Volume-Number: Volume 13, Number 3
More information about the Comp.std.unix
mailing list