Ted,
Very well said. I guess I was pushing the envelope by extending that premise to GNU/Linux applications running on other GNU systems with different kernels or other OSs with GNU/Linux emulation where "clone" didn't work. I'll retract that (the other kernels & emulations, not POSIX) to save myself additional embarasement... :-) FYI, the enclosed statement is on the top page at URL http://www.kernel.org/ "Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX compliance." Sincerely, George Kraft IV [EMAIL PROTECTED] 512-838-2688; t/l 678-2688 Linux Technology Center IBM, Austin Texas [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 01/07/2000 07:58:56 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Thread deficiencies Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 00:13:22 -0500 From: Al Guerra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> No. Firstly, we are not the POSIX standards body. We are the __Linux__ standards body. Any pretense of being all things to everyone should be dropped right now. Developers that want to write Linux apps will have to use what Linux provides. Linux doesn't have pthreads, it has clone(). So we should adopt clone(). Umm... but part of our purpose is to encourage the development and porting of already existing Unix applications by third-party software vendors (ISV's) to Linux. The attitude of "tough shit if your program which took ten man-years to development uses Posix Threads" isn't hardly calculated to encourage those ISV's to port their product Linux. If you will recall, a long time ago, back in the Linux kernel 0.10 days, Linus explained that when he found a portability problem with an application, if the issue was with POSIX.1 compliance, he would fix the kernel instead of modifying the application. That's what got us to where we are today. Telling people to screw standards and use a linux specific interface might be what we have to do in the short-run, but I don't think it works for the long-term. - Ted -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
