[Info-vax] An alternative history of computing

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-07-22, Andrew Commons <andrew.commons at bigpond.com> wrote:
>
> In terms of Apple and Ethernet..In about 1990 my home office and development environment 
> consisted of an Apple IIsi, MicroVax2000, and a DecStation 2100. They all ran DECnet. In the 
> case of the Apple it was using an Apple Ethernet card with 3rd party DECnet software (the DECnet 
> specification was freely available). The IIsi had a laserprinter attached and made a nice little print 
> server for the MicroVAX and DecStation.

DECnet is not an open specification.

Parts of it are fully open (the lower-level NSP and related stuff) but
most of the higher-level application protocols are fully closed.

FAL is the only higher-level application protocol that is fully open.

The public CTERM specification is missing all the VMS extensions.

As for the others, show the known objects on your system and then
try and find public DECnet specifications for them. There isn't even
a public DECnet specification for the MAIL transport that I can find.

Now compare that to the TCP/IP situation. Everything there that is
part of a standard TCP/IP stack (including application protocols) is
fully open and documented.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.