lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk (Lee McLoughlin) (03/29/89)
I'm working on large program that I want to be as portable as possible. Although it is mainly aimed at Unix boxes I thought I'd throw caution to the wind and write it using the emerging standards: POSIX and ANSI C. The first problem is how do I get ahold of the POSIX spec' in the UK? Although I've heard a lot of discussion about POSIX and seen some libraries that a POSIX compatiable (Doug Gwyn's directory scanning code for example) I don't recall seeing the name of a book, or whatever, detailing POSIX. ANSI C is easier to get ahold of details. I just bought the 2nd edition of K&R. It seems to be a good general guide, but stddef.h, errno.h and locale.h don't seem to be documented anywhere. I'd really like pointers to official publications detailing POSIX and ANSI C. If anyone knows how to get them in the UK I'd be very grateful. While I'm asking I'd like public or freely available implementation of POSIX or ANSI C libraries so that I can port to a wider range of systems. So far I've only Doug Gwyn's directory stuff and a couple of programs for converting ANSI C to K&R C (ansi2kr an agcp). Any other contributions would be greatly appreciated. thanx in advance Lee -- Lee McLoughlin 01 589 5111 X 5028 Department of Computing,Imperial College,180 Queens Gate,London SW7 2BZ, UK Janet: lmjm@uk.ac.ic.doc Uucp: lmjm@icdoc.UUCP, ukc!icdoc!lmjm DARPA: lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk (or lmjm%uk.ac.ic.doc@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk)
nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) (03/30/89)
The people to contact about both POSIX and ANSI C in this country are the BSI. There is likely to be another ISO Draft Proposal on ANSI C, with a corresponding BSI DP, and that is a good opportunity to get a copy of the current draft. POSIX I am less in touch with. I am not sure of the best address to contact in the BSI, and it is a somewhat rambling organisation (several locations in London, Milton Keynes etc.) Try chasing up via one of the London locations. WARNING: do NOT rely on the second edition of K&R. They 'jumped the gun' and predicted the future wrong; I believe that they are working on a corrected second edition. I would also suggest working from the real standard, unless K&R second edition is considerably more thorough than the first edition. Nick Maclaren University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory nmm@uk.ac.cam.cl