The History of Posix: A Study in the Standards Process

J Isaak

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 1990)

The background of the Posix (an acronym for the standard formally known as Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments) standardization is described. Significant steps and/or stages in the process are discussed. They include setting up key guidelines; a methodology for identifying consensus that had evolved from software engineering groups writing the rationale; expanding participation; the issuance of a trial use standard and the issues it raised; additional activities launched; and future work.