Binary Compatibility 80286

[Fred Christiansen]

> Anyone worrying about binary compatability for UNIX programs has
> totally missed the point.
> 
> 	Erik E. Fair	ucbvax!fair	fair at ucbarpa.BERKELEY.EDU

Another reader/submitter alternatively suggested that System V, to be a
standard, had to address binary compatibility.  OK, here's my comment:

I believe AT&T have publicly stated that UN*X System V is, at present,
a source level standard.  Without questions, a source level standard
is very important to developers/programmers.  Moreover, without this,
a binary standard is very difficult (but not impossible) to create.
So, src lvl std comes first.

Binary compatibility is not to be sniffed at.  See the IBM and compatibles
PC S/W market -- gobs of off-the-shelf stuff.  Unfortunately, the history
and nature of the beast make Un*x binary compatibility much trickier.
/usr/group, at least temporarily, abandoned its attempts, and P1003 is
also putting this off.

-- 
<< Generic disclaimer >>
Fred Christiansen ("Canajun, eh?") @ Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ
UUCP:  {seismo!terak, trwrb!flkvax, utzoo!mnetor, ihnp4!btlunix}!mot!fred
ARPA:  oakhill!mot!fred at ut-sally.ARPA             Telephone:  +1 602-438-3472