if you want POSIX, import posix, not os

[James Logajan]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> This module [os] provides a more portable way of using
> operating system (OS) dependent functionality than
> importing an OS dependent built-in module like posix
> or nt.

POSIX is OS dependent? Well, yeah, I guess in a self-referential sort of
way. Non-portable? Yeah, I guess in an inevitable sort of way any standard
must stand apart from all other standards in its realm. I think there is wry
bit of humor in the above quoted text when it is contrasted with the
expanded acronym:

"FIPS 151-2, POSIX: Portable Operating System Interface for Computer
Environments"

I guess if the authors of POSIX were looking for a mature OS that was itself
known to be portable across machine platforms to use as their template, they
could have used Windows NT. Fortunately they didn't have a time machine
handy. (Only MS would fix something that wasn't broken. But when there is a
world to conquer.... I vaguely recall once hearing Bill Gates saying Unix
was going to be the OS of the future. This was back when MS pushed Xenix as
THE robust OS; before DOS really came on the scene.)