From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,df854b5838c3e14 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,df854b5838c3e14 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,df854b5838c3e14 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 10db24,fec75f150a0d78f5 X-Google-Attributes: gid10db24,public From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman) Subject: Re: ANSI C and POSIX Date: 1996/04/21 Message-ID: <4le2b2$c4t@felix.seas.gwu.edu>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 150677307 references: <4x4tqo2b1d.fsf_-_@bernoulli.enst-bretagne.fr> <4kuc6p$3bt@nntp.Stanford.EDU> organization: George Washington University newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.edu Date: 1996-04-21T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , Robert Dewar wrote: >"You still have to buy them from the IEEE. They are reluctant to >give them away because document sales pay for a significant >portion of IEEE's support for standards." >To me, this is a terrible way to deal with standards. It is very important >to make standards freely available if they are to have maximum impact. >This can certainly be achieved, as has been demonstrated by the Ada 95 >ANSI/ISO standard, which is available freely from the net, and can be >copied by anyone without charge. This issue was discussed at length in an article, followed by a thread of letters, in Communications of the ACM (CACM). As I recall, it started around the beginning of 1996, maybe a bit earlier. Anyone interested in this matter ought to read the CACM stuff. The pros and cons of using revenue from selling copies of a standard are staked out quite well there. As in so much else these days, everyone wants the benefits of X but wants someone else to pay for the X. One reason why it's been easier with the Ada standard(s) is that the US government has picked up so much of the cost. I am not taking sides here; read the stuff in CACM, then decide. Mike Feldman