The myriad variety of guides and profiles sloshing around the information technology industry is a nightmare of acronyms POSIX, NIST, EWOS, AOW, COS, SPAG, CENELEC and CEN are just a few of the names and initiatives bandied around the industry in the search for a coherent approach (apply to the editorial desk for a key!). It now appears that ISO, the International Standards Organisation which ultimately sits at the top of the pile, is set to grab the bull by the horns and adopt a single, all-embracing model for applications portability between systems. In a move that seems to have passed by the ears of the international trade press, the French Unix users group AFFU Association Francaise des Utilisateurs d’Unix et des Systemes Ouverts – says that a meeting in Copenhagen of ISO’s recently established Joint Technical Committee Technical Study Group for applications portability (known as TSG1), voted to adopt a conceptual model for this task. This will now be developed and put to ISO for adoption as a recognised standard at a full meeting of the organisation to be held in Ottawa in September. If, as the AFFU believes, this is adopted, an internationally ratified set of specifications for applications portability in system and software design will be available for developers and manufacturers. The model, which was put together by independent consultant Jean-Michel Cornu – president of AFNOR, Association Francaise de Normalisation, the French standards body – in collaboration with AFFU, was one of a number of proposals considered at the Copenhagen meeting. Other submissions included a joint UK-US model based around the CCTA’s guide for open systems, and Swedish and Danish models. According to Cornu, the French model is intended to overcome inconsistencies that exist between models from the various standards organisations. His model is like the picture on the front of a jigsaw box. On the table some of the pieces are in place, others will have to be shaped to fill out the gaps. Areas that the TSG group will be looking at in preparation for September’s meeting in Ottawa include portability, user requirements, internationalisation and a framework within which to work. A meeting of European representatives takes place ahead of this in June to thrash out a concerted strategy to take to the Ottawa meeting, which will be divided into a range of sub-groups considering hardware, operating systems, languages and so on. The highly conceptual model adopted in Copenhagen also proposes that specific applications areas are addressed by recommendation for communications, system processes, data processing and user interface profiles. The enhanced model to be presented in Ottawa will bring together profiles and guides that already exist in certan areas, such as X/Open’s XPG3 model for interoperability, and OSI protocols in communications. Gaps in the model as a whole will then be addressed, as will be the suitability of existing models like those above for inclusion, and ways and means to connect the various elements.
