The British Standards Institution, which already offers a Pascal Validation Service, is leading a project to develop the framework for a service that will validate C language translators against the requirements of the ISO/ANSI standard for C. The basis is a compiler validation suite from Plum Hall Inc, Cardiff, New Jersey, a training and consultancy firm specialising in C. Prices for the suite range from UKP1,500 to UKP6,000 depending on the system, and is configurable to test any compiler, from K&R and System V, up to the current draft of the ANSI C standard. The British Standards Institution, which is the sole European distributor for the suite, says that it will launch a Posix conformance testing service as soon as suitable test tools are available. The Institution says it is currently beta-testing the NIST Posix Conformance Test Suite, and intends to obtain accreditation as a testing laboratory for the US Posix Federal Information Processing Standard 151.
