[HECnet] Cisco DECnet routers and NML

On May 4, 2020, at 10:13 PM, Thomas DeBellis <tommytimesharing at gmail.com> wrote: Let me clarify this a bit. Leaving LAT aside, Tops-10 and Tops-20 implement two remote terminal protocols for DECnet. The Digital common one is CTERM, which runs on all (or most) platforms. Unfortunately, there are some minor problems with the current Tops-20 CTERM implementation that are annoying. For example, you can't use space as an un-pause character, which I've been doing since about 1978. Fixing it (if possible) means I've got to wade into the monitor and that could mean months before I come back up for air. I remembered a previous remote terminal protocol (NRT) that I think was available in either late Phase II or Phase III, but only between 20's (and eventually 10's). It is in no way as rich as CTERM (the difference perhaps being reminiscent of that between FTP and DAP), but it is far less complex. It appears to have been modeled in some ways along the lines of the Tops-20 ARPA NCP NVT (without the IAC negotiations). The interface is close enough so that the Tops-20 TELNET program can use it. However, the Tops-20 NRT CLIENT (SETHOST) appears to have been effectively abandoned in favor of the CTERM client and this is understandable, given that CTERM was the common platform and corporate direction. That it is unfortunate as NRT is more efficient. Most importantly, NRT doesn't have the above annoyances. But SETHOST needed further productization. Like FAL/DAP, bugs hurtled out of it as I started using it. MRC had modified it to assume a 2020 (I.E., Tops-20 4.2) which denied other efficiencies. Right now, I've got about eight fixes and enhancements in. It's quite tolerable.