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)
boykin@calliope.Encore.COM (Joseph Boykin) (03/29/89)
In article <746@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk> lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk (Lee McLoughlin) writes: >The first problem is how do I get ahold of the POSIX spec' in the UK? Firstly, POSIX is actually the name for what will become a set of standards. The only one currently approved is 1003.1, the system interface definition (i.e. system calls). P1003.2 recently went through its first ballot. I haven't heard what the results were, but generally it takes about 6-9 months before all the balloting objections are taken care of and a final ballot is taken. So, while "POSIX" may not be more than one standard today, there will be more than one by the end of the year. There are numerous others in development as well. Information on obtaining a coy of the 1003.1 standard is below. If you are interested in becoming active in the POSIX effort, which can mean anything from just obtaining a copy of the draft documents to actively participating in meetings, you should contact: Jim Isaak Chair, Technical Committee on Operating Systems Subcommittee on Operating System Standards (TCOS-SS for short!) DEC, MS ZK03-3/Y25 110 Spit Brook Road Nashua, NH 03062 603-881-0480 You can obtain a copy of the 1003.1 document from either the IEEE Service Center, or from IEEE-CS Publications. The catalog for the IEEE was the top-most on my desk, so here's the information: Standard Number: 1003.1-1988 Code: SH12211 Cost: $32.00 ($16 for IEEE Members) Provide Name, Address and IEEE Membership number and send your check or credit card number to: IEEE Service Center 445 Hoes Lane PO Box 1331 Piscataway, NJ 08855 in Canada: IEEE Canada 7061 Yonge Street Thornhill, Ontario L3T 2A6 Hope this helps. ---- Joe Boykin Encore Computer Corp Vice-Chair, IEEE Computer Societies' Technical Activities Board UUCP: encore!boykin ARPA: boykin@encore.com
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn ) (03/30/89)
In article <746@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk> lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk (Lee McLoughlin) writes: >The first problem is how do I get ahold of the POSIX spec' in the UK? IEEE Std 1003.1-1988, "IEEE Standard -- Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments" (ISBN 1-55937-003-3), is published by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017, USA; I believe they sell directly to the public, presumably including the UK. >I don't recall seeing the name of a book, or whatever, detailing POSIX. I don't know of any (yet). >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. Unless you need to use the "internationalization" features, K&R2 is probably a sufficient guide for most programming under ANSI C. The actual ANSI C standard has not yet been published, although we expect it to be within a few months. There are several books in mass-market bookstores around here that purport to explain how to program in "ANSI C"; all of them are a bit premature at this point, but they may not be far wrong (I haven't examined any other than K&R2).
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
dmr@alice.UUCP (04/02/89)
Nick Maclaren warned, 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. Actually, we predicted the future right. X3J11 made only the teensiest of language changes in the last 18 months. Noalias went in, but it went out again. A second printing of K&R 2 is in the works, but the changes are small enough that I will post a list of the differences when the time comes. Dennis Ritchie