Wirt made a very logical and insightful analysis of the downside to POSIX on MPE. I can raise few onjections, most of which would be nit picking to a absurd level. I would like to clarify my earlier point concerning language/environment commonality. As Wirt notes in vivid detail, most efforts at creating or enforcing a common language fail. This is not always a bad thing (Ada - enough said). My point, which I poorly related, was that there have been certain points of revolution in this industry that were so widely accepted that they in- and-of themselves forced the industry to grow in dramatic spurts. COBOL (yech) caused a commonality in application programming that still has the industry's highest momentum, and yet nobody I'll admit to knowing thinks COBOL is a wonderful programming language. TCP/IP was the turning point for networks. The commonality allowed MPE, MVS, VMS, UNIX and MS-DOS to freely communicate -- more or less. I could ramble on endlessly (which is my style) about the commonality found in C (but sadly not in Pascal), X.25, MS-DOS, etc. Each vaulted the industry foward in rather swift and unpleasent spurts (to which there is an interesting sidebar -- I believe that Turbo Pascal was the true turning point for the PC market place. When mister Kahn introduced the $49 compiler, he did for computers what Gutenberg did for literature, turned *everyone* into a programmer). Will POSIX have a revolutionary effect? I'm betting it will, and that it will do some of what Wirt predicts. There will be some degradation of proprietary systems that fight to keep their 85% solutions working. But the 85% that we are given to work with is better than the 0% we had last year. What will be interesting is if the "roach motel" method of garnering market share will work. As Wirt noted, each vendor likes the 85% solution, and dupe users and VARs into emploing the incompatable elements of their system. Despite editoral dementia to the contrary, the UNIX market is rife with this racket. MPE, and other "open proprietary" systems will be sold this way as well. Who wins? Well, we do. Prices will fall universaly and the evolutionary rate of application design will accelerate. More for less, if you will. We will see MPE altered, mutated both for better and worse beyond recognition. And I fear, it will become less stable. Not entirely desirable, but not the end of the world either. Just a new way of doing business. ======================================================================= Guy Smith Voice: 804-527-4000 ext 6664 Circuit City Stores, Inc. FAX: 804-527-4008 9950 Mayland Drive E-Mail: [log in to unmask] Richmond, VA 23233-1464 Private E-Mail: [log in to unmask] The thoughts expressed herein are mine and do not reflect those of my employer, or anyone with common sense.