SunSoft Inc is apparently in the vanguard of an effort backed by other vendors to right a Spec 1170 shortfall and create a method to relieve independent software vendors of having to recompile for all the various Unix systems. SunSoft vice-president and chief scientist Rob Gingell described the move, which could bear fruit in 1996-97, as a descendant of the old forgotten Open Systems Development Initiative. It’s not cold fusion, he said, it’s more perspiration than inspiration, but the political climate in which the Unix industry moves hasn’t been receptive to such reasonable solutions until recently. Gingell, who sits on both the X/Open Co Ltd and Open Software Foundation boards for Sun Microsystems Inc, believes Unix companies are finally learning to play together like any group of successful toddlers, hence the new initiative. The technology would make use of current compilers and provide independent software vendors with a single interface-based run-time and compile environment encompassing different Unix target systems. It throws them a sop for not coming up with a single unified Unix operating system, which of course remains the Holy Grail.
