[Info-vax] An alternative history of computing

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 7/28/21 9:41 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 7/28/2021 5:45 AM, chris wrote:
>> On 07/28/21 02:50, David Jones wrote:
>>> On Monday, July 26, 2021 at 6:27:22 AM UTC-4, chris wrote:
>>>> Originally, all that was loosely based on an ISO model,
>>>> the sort of standards that DEC were great supporters
>>>> and contributors to at all levels, but really backed
>>>> themselves into a corner over decnet. An obscure set
>>>> of protocols and command set reminiscent of the sort of
>>>> serisl line and telco ideas dating back to the 1970's.
>>>> TCP/IP was faster, easier to visualise in design, to
>>>> program and above all, a completely open source and fixed
>>>> set of standards that anyone could use, improve and generally
>>>> contribute to.
>>>
>>> The TCP/IP standards were developed over decades, RFC superceding RFC.
>>> The RFC specifications often had gaps which results in conflicting
>>> implementations
>>> by different parties, usually resolved by adopting the interpretation
>>> of the one
>>> which has bigger presence in the rather limited ARPANET ecosystem.
>>>
>>>   Eventually it got reliable enough that  V.P. Gore proposed dropping
>>> the commerce
>>> restrictions.
>>
>> That's a rather biased, one sided view. I was using tcp/ip in the late
>> 1980's
> 
> Well, there is your problem.  In the late 1970s DECnet was a working 
> product.  

A working product that only worked on a very small subset of computers
in use at the time and with little or no long distance capabilities.

>           As I remember, not so for TCP/IP.  I'd perhaps suggest that 
> you need to be a bit older, but, it's no fun, won't wish that on someone.

One really has to wonder why, if it had a decade head start OSI (aka
DECnet) never acquired the capabilities of TCP/IP.  Why is the Internet
TCP/IP based and not OSI?

bill