_POSIX_1_SOURCE (was: Standards Update, IEEE 1003.1: System services)interface

[John Michael Sovereign]

From:  jms at apple.com (John Michael Sovereign)


In article <9951 at cs.utexas.edu> jason at cnd.hp.com (Jason Zions) writes:

> This makes the assumption that there is indeed a single POSIX name space,
> to which pieces are added by the various working groups. This assumption,
> while a reasonable one, is in fact not correct.

There is, however, a single C language name space which new standards (and 
revisions)
pollute as long as they continue to use header files already defined by 
ANSI C and/or POSIX.1
(as I believe Doug Gwyn pointed out recently).

> The various 1003.* working groups are *not* developing separate 
components
> of an overall, integrated POSIX standard. Each POSIX standard stands 
alone....

>From what I've heard, there HAS been discussion at the ISO level of 
bundling the C language
interfaces of POSIX.2 and/or POSIX.4 into future versions of 9945-1.  
Unfortunately, a decision on this matter might be delayed until after the 
IEEE standards have been adopted....

As far as _POSIX_1_SOURCE goes, it's not clear to me why the existing 
_POSIX_SOURCE
can't be used (perhaps modified) for this purpose.

John Sovereign
jms at apple.com
"Perhaps software developers should face the same legal support 
requirements as parents."


Volume-Number: Volume 20, Number 121