[HECnet] Re: Nodename updating

Tops-20 will do both MAIL11 and SMTP over DECnet (which I use every day).  It will also route email between the two mail transport types as well as route SMTP from DECnet to Internet and the other transports it can use.  Columbia routed a lot of email this way. It recognizes what to do based on the address specification.  If you do FOO(a)BAR.#DECnet, then it will use SMTP.  If you do BAR::FOO, then it will use MAIL11.  It will also route Internet mail to DECnet; let's suppose you have user FOO on VMS DECnet host BAR, which has connectivity to Tops-20 Internet host BAZ, domain EDU. To send email to from an Internet host, you'd specify "BAR::FOO"@BAZ.EDU.#Internet"., or something along those lines (I forget).  Same thing with BITnet and (somehow) with Unix "!" (Bang) addresses. The modules which do this are MAISER, MMAILR and HSTNAM. Locally, there was a split at some point to modules name DMAISER (or some such) for the DECnet related functionality, part of which was first done at Columbia.  Not all that code made it back into the PANDA sources and the monitor needed some minor enhancements to provide some information that HSTNAM wanted. It's on my list of things to finish debugging, one problem being that doing so tickled a limitation in the debugger (DDT) that I had to fix.  Typical rabbit hole.