Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: UNIX sys V4.0 Message-ID: <1990Oct22.041358.22745@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 22 Oct 90 04:13:58 GMT References: <15224@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1990Oct19.092925.4876@isis.cs.du.edu> Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 22 Not much help on the ABI compliance, but a little. Traditionally, because Unix systems are "configure it to your heart's content" systems, most software outside the operating system had to be sold as source code with nasty licensing agreements, etc. As Unix moves down the hardware cost food chain, it became a goal to be able to sell "shrink wrap", ready to go software. The ABI (Something Binary Interface) provides a guaranteed OS functionality among the various platforms using the same CPU so that you can drop in the shrink wrap binary and it will find the things it needs where it expects in the OS, without danger of it having been configured away by the OS provider or the sysop, and be up and running with minimal requirements on the user. That's pretty high level, and I hope it's all true; at least it gives the flavor, and it is all I know on the subject, except that a standards committee designed the beast, and it's fairly new. I hope that helps a little. /// It's Amiga /// for me: why Kent, the man from xanth. \\\/// settle for \XX/ anything less?