I would like the three sub-projects to start running now that they officially exist. Here are some thoughts on where each group might begin work. I don't believe any of these items is a waste of time.
My strategy is for us to begin with simple tasks, especially informational and exploratory tasks that encourage discussion between the three sub-projects. Also note I am mailing the public list and only Cc'ing the private one. My hope is that we'll have most of our discussion in the open, with non-members *lurking* as requested. 1. Sample Implementation Develop a list of source packages ABSOLUTELY required for ISV applications, including version numbers. Try to move as many items from that list as possible into another list of nice-to-haves (that we will ignore for now). For example, a compiler shouldn't be required to run most applications. For example, - kernel 2.0.x (already on list) - glibc 2.0.x (already on list) - util-linux 2.x - tar 1.11.8 - sh-utils-1.12 - gawk 3.0.0 (already "probably" on list) - sed 2.05 (already on list) - bash (for POSIX sh, which is already on list) Only a list for now. I think we should also worry if the list gets much longer than a few dozen items. Also, I think we've pretty much decided that Perl is not on the list. Each item should be scrutinized to make sure it's really needed. Some items (like util-linux) will have a lot of stuff not needed, and maybe that should be documented. Items left off the list aren't forbidden or ignored, just not part of the base that LSB-compliant software can really count on. 2. Test Suite More than one or two people should begin active work on existing Unix test suites. We should at least find out where we stand with respect to POSIX, for example. Initially, this will be just for our own information, but stands a reasonable chance of becoming part of our own testing. We also need to determine if there are license problems with either NIST and TOG's POSIX test suites. If there are, we need to decide what we could use, and what we want to use. 3. Written Standard Start document framework, continue Alan's work on the library reference, help the test suite group with the POSIX.1 testing, start thinking about what pre-existing standards should be referenced (ties into the initial test suite work). - Dan
