[HECnet] Effects of Rogue Duplicate HECnet Node?

You've put your finger on something that's puzzled me for quite some time about Tops-20's lexical implementation. There is no standardized syntax in the generalized parsing interface (COMND% and GTJFN%) for using numeric node names. If you ask COMND% to parse a node name and do not shut off standard syntax, then you must specify a maximum six character word which conforms to the SIXBIT character set followed a double colon, which looks like what you would think it would, viz: VENTI2:: However, the integration into the monitor isn't as seamless as it appears to be under VMS.? In order to make a connection, you must build a special string for GTJFN% to swallow.? Let's suppose I wanted to grab the latest node list from MIM:: (which I do on a weekly basis); you would type MIM::FIX.T20;0 as the source to NFT. That's not what GTJFN% wants and you must transmogrify the string into DCN:MIM-FAL. Once that connection is open, you negotiate DAP and then ask MIM:: to send the file. There is no standardized "[a.b.c.d]" syntax such as what you might use to get to an IP4 host which is neither in the DNS nor host tables.? You can use COMND% to parse for a number optionally followed by a dot and another number and the operator NICE interface (NCP) does in fact do this.? Indeed, it is the only interface besides SETNOD which does this (in order to define nodes).? So I can give an area.address to NCP as an argument to a TELL verb in order to get remote information. Neither programs will work right for the general user.? The user could use COMND% to parse for the numbers and then use the .NDRNM function of the NODE% JSYS to convert them into a name which is palatable to GTJFN%. However?and this is the point?if that name isn't in Tops-20's node data base, then the NODE% JSYS will fail and you have nothing to give to GTJFN%. Therefore there is no way for a general user to make a connection. I can't make up my mind as to whether this is a bug, a misfeature or unfinished business.? Tops-20 installations had millions of (1980's) dollars hardware and software, trained staffs and often large populations.? Management of them was very different from a lab machine (PDP-8, PDP-11) or departmental machine (VAX 11/780). At least in the university setting, students are an inquisitive lot and a lot of had to be done to prevent certain kinds of activities, probing and downright meddling.? It seems to me that not defining the node in the first place on an academic machine is a great misfeature as it eliminates probing. However, as I've said before (viz., the NFT: device and FTS), there are parts of Tops-20 DECnet that strike me as not fully productized.? One example is that there is no way for /anybody/ to extract the area and number of a node once it is the monitor.? You can (and should) verify that the node is 'legitimate' by using .NDVFY function of the NODE% JSYS, which will also tell you some interesting things about it.? However, it will not divulge the aforementioned numbers.? It annoyed me enough so that I modified the monitor to do just that with an additional function, .NDVFX and I use this in DAP (but don't depend on it) and in the mailer (where I do). I haven't posted the changes anywhere because I can't make up my mind whether this was fixing an oversight or breaking a design decision or indeed, whether that should even matter. Another example is that, once a node is inserted into the monitor data base, there is *no* documented way to remove it.? As I was implementing .NDVFX, I was looking at the in-area hashing code and noticed that it appears that the monitor will remove a node marked as -1 (36 bits).? I have yet to test this.? Certainly SETNOD gives no hint (another reason I'm toying with a rewrite). Curiouser and curiouser.? Do the above two functionalities exist in other operating systems?