An alpha release of pdksh v5.0.6 is available from

    ftp.cs.mun.ca:pub/pdksh-5.0.6.tar.gz	(258 kbytes)

This version is believed to be fairly stable, but has not had extensive
testing (thus the alpha release bit).  Another (beta?) version will be
announced in a month or so, when most of the bugs/porting problems in this
release have been fixed.  In the interim, for those who want the very latest
and greatest, versions will be made available on ftp.cs.mun.ca as improvements
are made.

Mail concerning pdksh can be sent to pdksh@cs.mun.ca.

Anyone interested in adding to pdksh should have a look at the PROJECTS file
(and perhaps send mail to check that no one else is doing the same thing).

The following bits are extracted from the README file:

  PD-ksh is a mostly complete AT&T ksh look-alike (see NOTES file for a list
  of things not supported).  Work is currently underway to make it fully
  compatible with both POSIX and AT&T ksh (when the two don't conflict).
  
  Since pdksh is free and compiles and runs on most common unix systems, it
  is very useful in creating a consistent user interface across multiple
  machines.  For example, in the CS dept. of MUN, pdksh is installed on a
  variety of machines including Suns, HPs, DecStations, pcs running Linux,
  etc., and is the login shell of ~2500 users (note that they aren't using the
  current alpha test version, but an older version).
  
  PDksh is currently being maintained by Michael Rendell (michael@cs.mun.ca),
  who took over from Simon J. Gerraty (sjg@zen.void.oz.au) at the later's
  suggestion.  A short list of things that have been added since the
  last public pdksh release (4.9) are auto-configuration, arrays, $(( .. )),
  [[ .. ]], variable attributes and many POSIXisms.  See the NEWS and ChangeLog
  files for other features added and bugs fixed.
  
  Note that pdksh is provided AS IS, with NO WARRANTY, either expressed or
  implied.  Also note that although the bulk of the code in pdksh is in the
  public domain, some files are copyrighten (but freely distributable) and
  subject to certain conditions (eg, don't remove copyright, document any
  changes, etc.).
  
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  The following is a list of machines pdksh is known to work on:
      -/PC Linux 0.99.15 (Slackware v1.?)
      -/PC NetBSD 0.9a
      Dec/alpha OSF/1 v2.0
      Dec/pmax Ultrix 4.2
      Dec/vax 4.3BSD+NFS (MtXinu)
      Dec/vax Ultrix 2.2
      HP/pa HP-UX 9.01
      MIPS/m120 RISC/os 5.0 (bsd43 environ)
      Sun/sun3 SunOS 4.0.3
      Sun/sun386i SunOS 4.0.2
      Sun/sun4 Solaris 2.3
      Sun/sun4 SunOS 4.1.3


--
Michael Rendell				Department of Computer Science
michael@cs.mun.ca			Memorial University of Newfoundland
 (709) 737-4550				St. John's, Nfld., Canada  A1C 5S7