X/Open Co Ltd has missed its proposed May timeframe for rolling out Release 4 of its Portability Guide, a set of specifications designed to make it easier to develop open systems products, or to convert proprietary offerings to open systems. The delay is due to the complex documentation required, X/Open claims, saying that it wants to make a big splash for XPG4, now scheduled for the autumn. Now that Unix System Laboratories Inc has finally cut a deal for the Open Software Foundation’s Distributed Computing Environment, albeit through Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, hopes are that X/Open may find light at the end of that particular tunnel too. X/Open, which has been in talks for over a year, was to have incorporated DCE into its Common Applications Environment some time ago: that is also on ice until the two can work something out.
