[Info-vax] VMS 8.4-2L1 on AXPBox

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2023-05-19 12:09:01 +0000, Simon Clubley said:

> On 2023-05-18, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> On 5/18/2023 10:19 AM, Paul Koning wrote:
>>> Time to try DECnet Phase V for the first time in my life.  And BTW, 
>>> Bill, Phase V includes backward compatibility with Phase IV.  So if you 
>>> want to talk to RSTS/E Phase IV it should work.  Older ones that are 
>>> Phase III would not work.
>> 
>> I don't see Phase V providing anything useful that Phase IV does not 
>> provide - and everything is just more complex to configure in V.
>> 
> 
> DECnet Phase V is how Heath Robinson would have designed a networking protocol.

I'm sure Paul has seen some Rube Goldberg constructions—the US 
equivalent to Heath Robinson—at DEC and likely elsewhere, if Paul is 
the same person that used to have the KONING:: host an aeon or two ago.

And yeah, DECnet Phase V features a wonderful and elegant and capable 
design throughout, having unfortunately started out with a staggeringly 
poor and overly-complex management interface for even the common cases, 
and never really recovered from that.

I'd generally upgrade from Phase V to Phase IV, absent requirements for 
DECnet over IP or a few other network rarities. Or for cases where 
somebody wants to experience OSI networking and what could have been 
but for utterly missing the market, of course.


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