9 Mar
2023
9 Mar
'23
2:24 a.m.
(Somehow my first response got very garbled...)
On 2023-03-09 02:10, Paul Koning wrote:
All true. And no different than an IP router, for example.
> On Mar 8, 2023, at 8:00 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> wrote:
>
> On 3/8/23 19:48, Robert Armstrong wrote:
>> I think we should drop Cisco IOS and pyDECnet from the count - those
>> aren't really OSes for our purposes.
>
> I agree that they're not, but I think we should keep them in there, to identify
the nodes. Perhaps add a flag in the database sc
hema saying it's a router,
rather than a "true" DECnet node?
-Dave
Um, routers are true DECnet nodes. The defintion of a DECnet node is "a software
construct that
implements (a suitable subset of) the DECnet protocols". It has been true for a
very long time
that not all DECnet nodes are general purpose computers in which DECnet is merely one of
many OS services.
Routers, as dedicated devices, appeared in the early 1980s. And that isn't even
counting PDP-10 front ends
running Phase II Intercept service; those are routers too, though the name wasn't
applied at the time. For that matter, there are also DECnet nodes that are
neither routers nor general purpose computers.
The network-connected PostScript printers (LPS40, LPS20) are an example, as are some of
the earlier
X terminals. (Wasn't there something called the VT1000?)
There was both VXT1000 and VXT1200.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol