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

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-05-19 16:02, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> 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.

Pretty sure it's the same one, yes. :-)

> 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.

Agreed.

> 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.

And for that, I constantly point out that DECnet over IP is perfectly 
possible with Phase IV. For VMS, you need to install Multinet, and then 
you'll have it there.

For RSX, you need to install my TCP/IP, and then you have it there as well.

And Paul have his Python DECnet implementation, which also supports it.

Works like a charm.

   Johnny