[125] in Open-Software-Foundation-News
APIW PST News Flash
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (OSF Corporate Communications)
Fri Feb 17 18:21:16 1995
Resent-From: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
Resent-To: osf-news-mtg@menelaus.LOCAL
To: newsnug@osf.org
Reply-To: newsnug@osf.org
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 15:40:09 -0500
From: OSF Corporate Communications <corpcom@osf.org>
Date: February 17, 1995
To: OSF Members
From: corpcom@osf.org (OSF Corporate Communications)
Open Software Foundation
****************************************************
OSF ELECTRONIC FLASH
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An electronic mail news flash for OSF Members from
the Open Software Foundation
February 17, 1995
Member Solicitation for APIW PST
Dear OSF Member,
We are asking for your participation in the formation of
a new APIW PST at OSF, as a provider of input to the
prospective project.
SunSoft and other OSF sponosrs are developing a proposal
for a project to be run under OSF's PST (Pre-Structured
Technology) process. The goal of this project is to
facilitate the creation of an open specification for
Windows APIs, develop conformance tests for that API,
and establish a conformance testing program. The
specification is being written by an ad hoc technical
committee of the European Computer Manufacturers'
Association (ECMA) which intends to submit the completed
specification to ISO for acceptance as an international
standard. A brief overview of the proposed APIW project
is included, below.
The US Defense Information Systems Agency's Center for
Standards, a prospective consumer of APIW-conforming
products, has already expressed interest in the
prospective APIW project.
As the PST proposal is being drafted by this group the
proposal has started undergoing an initial review. The
first step in this review was a January presentation to
OSF's Architectural Planning Council which favorably
received the project. Future steps in the review
process include a solicitation of feedback from OSF
members, and a presentation of the completed project
proposal before the OSF Board of Directors.
The PST proposal group would like feedback on this
prospective project from OSF members. Therefore, OSF
and the prospective APIW sponsors request that Members
identify appropriate contacts who may be available for
input and review of important elements of this APIW
project proposal as it is being formulated. It is
important to identify individuals within your
organization who can represent your views from a
developer and/or user perspective with respect to
application portability based on an open specification
for the Windows API.
Should the OSF board approve the proposal, OSF Member
contacts which you provide will continue to be kept
informed about the project status. There may also be,
from time to time, technical review opportunities and
discussion points on which Member input would be
valuable.
Please email your contact information to Rich Zeliff
(zeliff@osf.org), or fax them to him at: 617-225-2782 as
soon as possible. Include:
Name:
Title:
Member Company:
Mail address:
Email:
Phone:
FAX:
Primary interest: ___ application developer
___ application user
___ other:____________________________
Thank you. We look forward to a fruitful partnership
between OSF Members and project sponsors that will help
make the APIW PST a success.
Sincerely,
Rich Zeliff
OSF, New Projects Manager
Cathy Betz
OSF, Business Development Manager
********************************************************
An Introduction to the Prospective OSF APIW PST
An OSF PST (Pre-Structured Technology) project is being
proposed to expedite creation of the Applications
Programming Interface for Windows (APIW) specification
test suite and the establishment of conformance test
levels. The prospective PST is in support of
specification work being done by an ad hoc technical
committee of ECMA. The prospective PST, to be
sponsored by SunSoft and other OSF sponsors, is
receiving cooperation from the Defense Information
Standards Agency's Center for Standards (DISA/CFS). The
opportunity for early participation in the creation of
this PST proposal is now available to qualified
organizations.
The ECMA APIW specification seeks to descriptively
specify the existing practice for those application
programming interfaces used by a significant majority of
programs: the Microsoft Windows APIs. The resulting
specifications would be platform-independent and vendor-
neutral, and would be maintained and furthered by an
appropriate standards organization. The premise of the
ECMA specification work is that broad participation in
such a critical component of the global technical
culture will serve the public interest.
In support of this, the proposed APIW PST deliverables
identified to date include specifications of specific
language bindings (C and Ada), a conformance test
specification, including establishment of levels of
conformance, and a conformance test suite.
The language binding specifications will be furnished to
ECMA and ISO for consideration by those bodies as
standards. A conformance test suite, written in
accordance with a conformance test specification, would
be implemented, and a mechanism for conformance testing
and branding would be established, possibly through
X/Open.
This work would be carried out under the OSF PST
process, by a prime contractor, with technical support
from interested organizations and financial support from
PST sponsors. Early participation in the PST will afford
sponsors opportunities to contribute to definition of
scope and content of APIW deliverables, the definition
of levels of conformance, the choice of technology
employed in conformance test specification and
implementation, and the subsequent evolution of the APIW
standard.
The APIW project is expected to benefit the software
industry at-large with respect to:
* application portability across platforms
* creation of a competitive development environment for
industry components
* timely evolution of the specification as technology
and requirements change.
* ease of software procurement for specification-
compliant products
In an October 1994 letter to David Tory, President and
CEO of the Open Software Foundation, Dr. Jeremy Kaplan
expressed DISA Center for Standards interest in an APIW
PST. John Sarkesain, DISA point-of- contact for the APIW
project, said he feels a public specification of the
technology will increase the Department of Defense's
capability to port applications across a multitude of
vendor platforms. Mr. Sarkesain said he also believed
it would provide an open, vendor-neutral change control
mechanism for the APIW specification. "These factors
weighed heaviliy on the Center for Standards decision to
cooperate in this project," said Mr. Sarkesain.
For further information about the APIW PST, contact
Cathy Betz (betz@osf.org) or Rich Zeliff
(zeliff@osf.org).
********************************************************
The following letter was received by OSF on 10/7/94.
Defense Information Systems Agency
Joint Interoperability and Engineering Organization
10701 Parkridge Blvd.
Reston, VA 22091-4398
Center for Standards
Information Processing Directorate
Mr. David Tory, CEO
Open Software Foundation, Inc.
11 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Dear Mr. Tory:
I wish to convey the support and cooperation of the
Center for Standards (CFS) to the proposed Open Software
Foundation (OSF) Pre-structured Technology (PST) for the
Application Program Interface for Windows (APIW)
specification development project. We also support the
OSF initiative for a test development effort supporting
the APIW specification.
We concur with the APIW PST project goal to define an
open standard Application Program Interface (API). We
seek to accrue the following benefits to the Department
of Defense (DOD), government, and industry:
* Application portability across a multitude of vendor
platforms,
* Concensus process control of the APIW specification
* Public access to the specification, providing for a
competitive development environment for all industry
components and procurement options for the government,
and
* Timely evolution of the specification as technology
and requirements change.
My point of contact for this project is Mr. John
Sarkesain, who can be reached at 703-487-3314, email:
sarkesaj@cc.ims.disa.mil.
DR. JEREMY M. KAPLAN
Deputy Commander
Center for Standards
