🚀 go-pugleaf

The word "Open System" has usually had an unspoken definition in the
computer industry.  It has meant a computer that had adequate
documentation or that allowed applications to migrate to and from other
platforms.

I noticed in the OSI protocol specification that the term "Open
System" is given a completely different meaning.  It is defined as any
system that is capable of communicating with other "Open Systems",
i.e. one that implements the OSI protocol.

This definition will probably acquire legal significance because it is
part of the formal OSI specification.  It will allow vendors to claim
that their computers are "Open Systems" when in fact it remains
difficult or impossible to migrate applications to other systems, or
thorough documentation is nor provided.

Since it is unlikely that the OSI protocol specification will be
changed, it is now necessary for the user community to change their
use of terminology.

I propose that the term "Portable Applications" be used, as in, "The
system does not support portable applications", or "This vendor's
applications are not portable to other environments."

It is unfortunate that the OSI committee has made this error, but given
the new legal meaning of "Open System", we can no longer use the term
as it was previously understood.  -David-

david@wubios.wustl.edu             ^     Mr. David J. Camp
david%wubios@wugate.wustl.edu    < * >   +1 314 382 0584
...!uunet!wugate!wubios!david      v     "God loves material things."