After the numerous delays and obstacles that have held up approval of the IEEE Posix portable Unix standard, nobody is making any firm predictions of imminent agreement, but the 1003.1 standard looks a step nearer completion following the latest meeting of the IEEE committee in Washington, DC. A new draft document incorporating amendments in response to the numerous objections raised by the last full draft is expected to be circulated to committee members in a week or so, and further balloting will be restricted to objections to the amendments. To speed up publication of the standard, the IEEE standards board has already granted approval of the committee’s work, conditional on a satisfactory ballot result. A previous attempt to smooth over the objections – the production of 130 pages of printout detailing changes to the body of the standard – failed when representatives received the details of the changes only a few days before the deadline for voting on whether to accept them, and were not prepared to make any decision on such short notice.
