Access to UNIX-Related Standards

Sat Feb 7 02:19:35 AEST 1987

This is the latest in a series of similar mod.std.unix articles.
I'm copying it to comp.unix.questions this time, as an experiment.
Notice that several addresses have changed, including Jim Isaak's,
those for SVID and X/OPEN, and /usr/group's ZIP code.
Corrections and additions to this article are solicited.

Access information is given in this article for the following standards:
IEEE 1003.1 (POSIX), 1003.2 (shell/tools), 1003.3 (verification)
/usr/group working groups on distributed file system, network interface,
	graphics/windows, database, internationalization,
	performance measurements, realtime, and security
X3H3.6 (display committee)
X3J11 (C language)
/usr/group Standard
System V Interface Definition (SVID, or The Purple Book)
X/OPEN PORTABILITY GUIDE (The Green Book)

UNIX is a Registered Trademark of AT&T.
POSIX is a trademark of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
	Engineers, Inc.
X/OPEN is a licensed trademark of the X/OPEN Group Members.

The IEEE P1003 Portable Operating System for Computer Environments Committee
is sometimes known colloquially as the UNIX Standards Committee.
They have published the 1003.1 "POSIX" Trial Use Standard in April 1986.
According to its Foreword:

	The purpose of this document is to define a standard
	operating system interface and environment based on the
	UNIX Operating System documentation to support application
	portability at the source level.  This is intended for
	systems implementors and applications software developers.

Published copies are available at $19.95,
with bulk purchasing discounts available.
Call the IEEE Computer Society in Los Angeles

		714-821-8380

and ask for Book #967.  Or contact:

		IEEE Service Center
		445 Hoes Ln.
		Piscataway, NJ 08854

and ask for "IEEE 1003.1 Trial Use Standard" - stock number SH10546.

The Trial Use Standard will be available for comments for a period
such as a year.  The current target for a Full Use Standard is Fall 1987.
IEEE has initiated the process to have the 1003.1 effort brought into
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) arena.

Machine readable copies of the Trial Use Standard are not and will 
not be available.  A machine-readable "representation" of a draft
between the Trial Use and Full Use Standards may be available when
it is ready (probably in 1987).

There is a paper mailing list by which interested parties may get
copies of drafts of the standard.  To get on it, or to submit comments
directly to the committee, mail to:

		James Isaak
		Chairperson, IEEE/CS P1003
		Digital Equipment	MK02-2/B05
		Continental Blvd.
		Merrimack, NH 	 03054-0403
		decvax!jim
		603-884-3692

Sufficiently interested parties may join the working group.

Related working groups are
	group	subject		co-chairs
	1003.2	shell and tools	Hal Jespersen (Amdahl), Don Cragun (Sun)
	1003.3	verification	Roger Martin (NBS), Carol Raye (AT&T)

Inquiries regarding 1003.2 and 1003.3 should go to the same address
as for 1003.1.

The next scheduled meetings of the P1003 working groups are, in 1987:

April	20-21  1003.[23]  King Edward Hotel, Toronto	Host:  IBM
April	22-24  1003.1     "
		(Just before the Canadian UNIX Conference)

June	22-23  1003.1  Seattle (changed from USENIX week in Phoenix to
		 give us better 'working' attendance)	No Host yet
June	24-26  1003.[23]

Aug/Sept 31-4   East Coast Probably Washington DC area	No Host yet
 OR Sept 14-18	Boston (Same Time/loc as X3J11)
(Sept 7th is Labor day, and that week is ISO TC97 SC22 meeting in Wash DC)

There is also a balloting group (which intersects with the working group).
This is more difficult.  Contact the committee chair for details.
I will repost them in this newsgroup if there is sufficient interest.

Here are some details from Hal Jespersen regarding P1003.2:

The IEEE P1003.2 "Shell and Utilities" Working Group is developing a
proposed standard to complement the 1003.1 POSIX standard.  It will
consist of

	a shell command language (currently planned to be based on the
	Bourne Shell),

	groups of utility programs, or commands,

	programmatic interfaces to the shell (system(), popen()) and
	related facilities (regular expressions, file name expansion,
	etc.)

	defined environments (variables, file hierarchies, etc) that
	applications may rely upon

which will allow application programs to be developed out of existing
pieces, in the UNIX tradition.  The scope of the standard emphasizes
commands and features that are more typically used by shell scripts or
C language programs than those that are oriented to the terminal user
with windows, mice, visual shells, and so forth.

The group is currently seeking proposals for groupings of commands that
may be offered by implementors.  As groups are identified, command
descriptions will be solicited.  There is no requirement that the commands
be in System V or BSD today, but they should realistically be commands 
that are commonly found in most existing implementations.

Meetings are normally held in conjunction with the 1003.1 group and
have a large membership overlap.  Future meetings will generally be held
on the day or two preceding 1003.1.

There are three Institutional Representatives to P1003:  John Quarterman
from USENIX, Heinz Lycklama from /usr/group, and John Loman from X/OPEN.

As the one from USENIX, one of my functions is to get comments from the
USENIX membership and the general public to the committee.  One of the
ways I try to do that is by moderating this newsgroup (currently known
as mod.std.unix, eventually as comp.std.unix).  An article related to
this one appeared in the September/October 1986 ;login: (The USENIX
Association Newsletter).  I'm also currently on the USENIX Board of
Directors.  Comments, suggestions, etc., may be sent to

		John S. Quarterman
		TIC
		P.O. Box 14621
		Austin TX 78761
		512-837-7233
		usenix!jsq
For mod.std.unix:
Comments:	ut-sally!std-unix-request std-unix-request at sally.utexas.edu
Submissions:	ut-sally!std-unix		std-unix at sally.utexas.edu

The January/February 1987 issue of CommUNIXations (the /usr/group newsletter)
contains a report by Heinz Lycklama on the /usr/group Technical Committee
working groups which met in September 1986.

If you are interested in starting another working group, contact
Heinz Lycklama:

		Heinz Lycklama
		Interactive Systems Corp.
		2401 Colorado Ave., 3rd Floor
		Santa Monica, CA 90404
		(213)453-8649
		decvax!cca!ima!heinz

Here is contact information for /usr/group working groups as taken from
the CommUNIXations article mentioned above.

/usr/group Working Group on Distributed File System:
	Dave Buck
	D.L. Buck & Associates, Inc.
	6920 Santa Teresa Bldg, #108
	San Jose, CA 95119
	(408)972-2825

/usr/group Working Group on Network Interface:
	Gil McGrath
	AT&T Information Systems
	(201)522-6182

/usr/group Working Group on Internationalization:
	Karen Barnes
	Hewlett-Packard Co.
	19447 Pruneridge Ave.
	M/S 47U2
	Cupertino, CA 95014
	(408) 725-8111, ext 2438

/usr/group Working Group on Graphics/Windows:
	Tom Greene
	Apollo Computer, Inc.
	(617)256-6600

/usr/group Working Group on Realtime:
	Bill Corwin
	Intel Corp.
	5200 Elam Young Pkwy
	Hillsboro, OR 97123
	(503)681-2248

/usr/group Working Group on Database:
	Val Skalabrin
	Unify Corp.
	1111 Howe Ave.
	Sacramento, CA 95825
	(916)920-9092

/usr/group Working Group on Performance Measurements:
	Ram Celluri			Dave Hinant
	AT&T Computer Systems		SCI Systems, Inc.
	Room E15B			Ste 325, Pamlico Bldg
	4513 Western Ave.		Research Triangle Pk, NC 27709
	Lisle, IL 60532			(919)549-8334
	(312)810-6223

/usr/group Working Group on Security:
	Steve Sutton
	Computer Systems Div.
	Gould Inc.
	1101 East University
	Urbana, IL 61801
	(217)359-0700

The X3H3.6 display management committee has recently formed to develop
a model to support current and future window management systems, yet
is not based directly on any existing system.  The chair solicits
help and participation:

		Georges Grinstein
		wanginst!ulowell!grinstein

The Abstract of the 1003.1 Trial Use Standard adds:

	This interface is a complement to the C Programming Language
	in the C Information Bulletin prepared by Technical Committee X3J11
	of the Accredited Standards Committee X3, Information Processing
	Systems, further specifying an environment for portable application
	software.

X3J11 is sometimes known as the C Standards Committee.  Their liaison to
P1003 is

		Don Kretsch
		AT&T
		190 River Road
		Summit, NJ 07901

A contact for information regarding publications and working groups is

		Thomas Plum
		Vice Chair, X3J11 Committee
		Plum Hall Inc.
		1 Spruce Avenue
		Cardiff, New Jersey 08232

The current document may be ordered from

		Global Press
		2625 Hickory St.
		P.O. Box 2504
		Santa Anna, CA 92707-3783
		U.S.A.
		800-854-7179
		+1-714-540-9870 (from outside the U.S., ask for extension 245.)
		TELEX 692 373

who know X3J11 as X3.159.  The price is $65.

The /usr/group Standard is a principal ancestor of P1003.1, X/OPEN,
and possibly even X3J11:

		/usr/group Standards Committee
		4655 Old Ironsides Drive, Suite 200
		Santa Clara, California 95054
		(408)986-8840

The price is still $15.00.

The System V Interface Definition (The Purple Book, or SVID).
This is the AT&T standard and is one of the most frequently-used
references of the IEEE 1003 committee.

		AT&T Customer Information Center
		Attn:  Customer Service Representative
		P.O. Box 19901
		Indianapolis, IN 46219
		U.S.A.

		800-432-6600 (Inside U.S.A.)
		800-255-1242 (Inside Canada)
		317-352-8557 (Outside U.S.A. and Canada)

	System V Interface Definition, Issue 2
	should be ordered by the following select codes:

	Select Code:	Volume:		Topics:
	320-011		Volume I	Base System
					Kernel Extension
	320-012		Volume II	Basic Utilities Extension
					Advanced Utilities Extension
					Software Development Extension
					Administered System Extension
					Terminal Volume Interface Extension
	320-013		Volume III	Base System Addendum
					Terminal Interface Extension
					Network Services Extension
	307-131		I, II, III	(all three volumes)

The price is about 37 U.S. dollars for each volume or $84 for all three.
Major credit cards are accepted for telephone orders:  mail orders
should include a check or money order, payable to AT&T.

The X/OPEN PORTABILITY GUIDE (The Green Book)
is another reference frequently used by IEEE 1003.

The X/OPEN Group is "Ten of the world's major information system
suppliers" (currently Bull, DEC, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, ICL,
NIXDORF, Olivetti, Philips, Siemens, Unisys, and AT&T) who have
produced a document intended to promote the writing of portable
facilities.  They closely follow both SVID and POSIX, and cite
the /usr/group standard as contributing, but X/OPEN's books
cover a wider area than any of those.

The book is published by

		Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
		Book Order Department
		P.O. Box 1991
		1000 BZ Amsterdam
		The Netherlands

and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by:

		Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc.
		52 Vanderbilt Avenue
		New York, NY 10017
		U.S.A.

There are currently five volumes:
	1) System V Specification Commands and Utilities
	2) System V Specification System Calls and Libraries
	3) System V Specification Supplementary Definitions
	4) Programming Languages
	5) Data Management

They take a large number of credit cards and other forms of payment.

Volume-Number: Volume 9, Number 49