[tex-live] xindy doesn't work on windows

Philip TAYLOR P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk
Fri Aug 24 11:19:26 CEST 2012



Joachim Schrod wrote:

>>> Windows clames to be conformant to POSIX
>>
>> (PT) Could you cite the Microsoft reference on which you base
>> that assertion ?
>
> On the 1st page of a Google search, the 1st Microsoft link:
>
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc976809.aspx
>
> "Windows 2000 is fully compliant with the Institute of Electrical and
> Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 1003.1"

A statement about an O/S which is right down at the 3-sigma tail
of the usage distribution, if not beyond.

> The same holds for future Windows versions.

It makes no claims whatsoever about later versions, which makes
perfect sense since they would not have existed at the time
of writing.  If there is a similar statement concerning Windows XP,
Vista and/or Windows 7, it would be well worth adducing.

> As the CEO of a Microsoft partner company, I also received respective
> information from Microsoft Corp. in email and on paper. It's part of
> the marketing information that they give to partner companies like
> mine.

I have little doubt that Microsoft pay lip-service to Posix, just as
Digital did when they re-branded VMS as "Open VMS" (a term I refuse
to use to this day).  Unless there is real evidence that modern
versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7) /are/, and set out to be,
Posix-compliant, then it would be far better (and far safer) to
assume that they are not, and to treat them as an entirely
disparate architecture.

** P.


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