POSIX – Inside: A case study

Jim Isaak, School of Business; Southern New Hampshire University

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

The POSIX (UNIX) standards activities, from /usr/group and IEEE through ISO WG15 and X/Open reflect one of the major success and failure stories in the standards process. This paper provides a case study of the POSIX effort from 1983 through the turn of the century. Key events and turning points in the activity are identified along with their apparent impact on the overall activities. The ultimate benefit from this evaluation is lessons learned that can be applied to future standards activities.