SunSelect, the Sun Microsystems Inc planet responsible for the Public Windows Interface Initiative, is doing what it can to keep its so-called Windows specification a live issue with X/Open Co Ltd. X/Open has already rated as slim its chances of meeting key criteria for adoption, specifically the one that requires it to be willing and able to assign X/Open the copyright. SunSelect however is saying its lawyers have assured X/Open that it can. Meanwhile, SunSelect has fallen back on what appears to be a contingency plan and has submitted the thing to the European Computer Manufacturers Association which it now says is a more official standards body than X/Open, which is relegated in SunSelect’s opinion to the status of a mere consortium. It says it has got the spec assigned to an Association technical committee and expects to have a draft ready by October or November. Then it will go to an Association General Assembly vote in December. The European body, it believes, can push the specification into the International Standards Organisation, making use of a fast track slot that opens the beginning of 1995; it reckons it would take the spec nine months to go through all its voting procedures. Meanwhile, SunSelect is saying it wants X/Open only to do the branding and testing anyway. X/Open will apparently adopt any resulting Association standard, provided it meets user needs.
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