[Info-vax] Looking into C-include files on VMS

[John Wallace]

On Nov 11, 6:43 pm, Wilm Boerhout <w6.boerh... at planet.nl> wrote:
> MetaEd mentioned  on 11-11-2009 19:34:
>
> > On Nov 10, 7:19 pm, VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
> >> Last time I looked, VMS was not Unix!  Many other OSs are not unix.
> >> Therefore, the "standard" is not. Now, I need to find a "standard"
> >> 12.345mm square torx bit with a 5/16" socket drive.
>
> > There is a TORX standard. The current standard is ISO 10664. That fact
> > does not depend on whether VMS supports it.
>
> > There is a vfork() standard. The current standard is UNIX 03. That
> > fact also does not depend on whether VMS supports it.
>
> > (Wait. What's this T15 bit doing in my hardware PCB?)
>
> I've been waiting for a moment to join this pissing contest. This is it:
>
> ISO is an internationally recognized (by governments and businesses
> alike) standards body. They issue standards and audit conformance.
>
> "UNIX" is not a standards body. It does not issue standards and does not
> audit conformance.
>
> /Wilm
>
> (14" torx, several other decimal torxes, and assorted other equipment)

Bzzzt.

There was a time for several years when UNIX was a registered
trademark and was legitimately only usable by companies whose products
had passed conformance tests issued by the standards body that
administered the legitimate use of the UNIX trademark. To call an OS a
UNIX without having the appropriate certification was a violation of
the trademark rules.

It was entirely possible to be a certified UNIX and yet some aspects
of 'portability' would still need horrible "configure" scripts of the
kind that have led to the discussion here.

I do not know or care whether the trademark/conformance rule is still
the situation today, but I believe it was the at least the case while
the UNIX trademark was licenced by The Open Group, owners of the
Single UNIX Specification. Actually this probably goes back further
than The Open Group, probably as far as Spec1170 aka Single UNIX
Specification, which goes back to the mid 1990s if I remember rightly.

M http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/single_unix_specification.html