Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!icdoc!qmc-cs!liam From: liam@cs.qmc.ac.uk (William Roberts) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk Subject: Re: Appletalk Phase ][ Summary: Pity really, I rather like AppleTalk Message-ID: <1132@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk> Date: 22 Jun 89 19:11:15 GMT References: <27262@ames.arc.nasa.gov> Reply-To: liam@cs.qmc.ac.uk (William Roberts) Organization: Computer Science Dept, Queen Mary College, University of London, UK. Lines: 35 Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Distribution: Keywords: In article <27262@ames.arc.nasa.gov> medin@cincsac.arc.nasa.gov (Milo S. Medin) writes: >This is a classic case of Not Invented Here. There are well known solutions >to the types of internet problems ATP2 has built into it. It's obselete as >a protocol even before it's fielded. Yes, and that's the really sad thing about it. AppleTalk is a brilliantly simple "self-configuring" system which puts the human admin work only where it is needed. It also obtains services by lookup, which is much better than "well-known addresses". What I believe Apple should do (should have done) is to anticipate the meltdown in IP address space that will happen if we really do get intensely interconnected, and built an AppleTalk 2 that coped with the problems of hierarchical administration of truly enormous collections of small networks. Then it's time for Apple to licence the code to other vendors so that we can all use it, together with some neat peripherals like Ethernet laser printers to make it worth non-Mac sites using the stuff. My pet suggestion for doing this is to allow open ended extensions of the network number (nets of nets of nets of...) and let the routers worry about it. Might pay to up the size of the node number as well, allowing the old scheme to co-exist (rather like long and short form ddp addresses). Remember that services obtained by lookup have the inherent advantage that the return path can be anticipated by reversing the lookup path. If X25 (X75?) switches can do it (logical channel numbers and all) then so can anybody. -- William Roberts ARPA: liam@cs.qmc.ac.uk Queen Mary College UUCP: liam@qmc-cs.UUCP AppleLink: UK0087 190 Mile End Road Tel: 01-975 5250 LONDON, E1 4NS, UK Fax: 01-981 7517