whither UNIX

[gwyn%brl-vld at sri-unix.UUCP]

From:      Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn at brl-vld>

The UNIX standardization problem does not go away by just "defining"
a standard, if sufficiently many people have reason not to follow it.
The fundamental problem is that there is NO single version of UNIX
(that I am aware of) that doesn't have some deficiencies that other
versions have fixed.  Often the deficiencies were fixed differently
in different flavors of UNIX.  If there were one common version that
provided reasonable support for everything an application programmer
needed to be doing, we would not have such a proliferation of UNIXes.
Unfortunately, UNIX developers have not always been responsive to
real user requirements (look how long IPC was neglected), and
different development groups have different interests and concerns.
That is why I think there is a real need for dialogue among these
persons, if UNIX is going to get out of this fragmentation rut.