Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: What is UNIX? Re: ls -A
Message-ID: <6496@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 10 Oct 89 18:08:42 GMT
References: <15@minya.UUCP> <14611@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1989Oct7.191435.26382@rpi.edu> <1248@virtech.UUCP> <6466@ficc.uu.net> <603@buster.irby.com> <6471@ficc.uu.net> <17118@rpp386.cactus.org>
Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Distribution: na
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 25

In <17118@rpp386.cactus.org> John F Haugh offers the argument that anything
that isn't SVID and hasn't passed the SVVS is not UNIX.

Well, John, in a legal sense you're right. Legally AT&T can destroy
your company if you publish an advertisement claiming that your BSD-
based system is UNIX. Or your Xenix-based one.

In practical terms, however (and I hope we're practical here) it's more
useful to use a wider definition of UNIX. After all, 10 years ago the
latest version of UNIX was version 7. It certainly isn't SVID, and will
in no way pass the SVVS. In a couple of years the latest version of
System V will be so mutated that current SVID systems will no longer
qualify. 

I doubt if anyone (other than AT&T Marketing types) who stops to think
about it will have any difficulty dealing with UNIX as being any system
that can trace its lineage back to AT&T.

Many of us are willing to use that term to describe anything that can
provide a programmer interface that's "close enough" to the 7th edition.
-- 
Peter da Silva, *NIX support guy @ Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Biz: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Fun: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com. `-_-'
                                                                           'U`
Quote: Structured Programming is a discipline -- not a straitjacket.