[Info-vax] An alternative history of computing

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <sdh8uv$6kd$1 at dont-email.me>, Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:

> Unfortunately, a protocol which only opens its lower layers and only
> 1 or 2 of its upper layer protocols is not open in any way that could
> accurately be described as open.
> 
> It would be like saying that TCP/IP is open if only everything at TCP
> level and below was fully open along with FTP and a partial Telnet
> specification while everything else in the TCP/IP stack was fully closed.
> 
> The point of an open protocol is that you can fully implement another
> full version of it just by reading the specifications. You can do that
> with TCP/IP but you most certainly cannot do that with the subset of
> DECnet specifications that are available.
> 
> Not even the MAIL protocol is documented in public. That would be like
> calling TCP/IP open while keeping the SMTP specification closed.

There are lies, damn lies, and open systems.