Standards-the history of Posix: a study in the standards process

The background of the Posix (an acronym for the standard formally known as Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments) standardization is described. Significant steps and/or stages in the process are discussed. They include setting up key guidelines; a methodology for identifying consensus that had evolved from software engineering groups writing the rationale; expanding participation; the issuance of a trial use standard and the issues it raised; additional activities launched; and future work