Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!apple!voder!pyramid!athertn!joshua
From: joshua@athertn.Atherton.COM (Flame Bait)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: rpc protocols
Keywords: rpc,protocols,rpc/xdr,asn.1,apollo
Message-ID: <12714@joshua.athertn.Atherton.COM>
Date: 16 Sep 89 23:25:18 GMT
References: <251049BF.4D2B@marob.masa.com>
Reply-To: joshua@atherton.com (Flame Bait)
Organization: Atherton Technology, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 36

Dominick Samperi (samperi@marob.masa.com) writes:
>Could people with RPC experience comment on the relative merits of
>the various RPC "standards": Sun's RPC/XDR, ASN.1 (Used by NetWise),
>and Apollo's (used by DEC?).? THanks!

The RPC standards "game" is not as complicated as it sounds:
    Sun's RPC is the standard on UNIX machines.
    Netwise's RPC is the standard on IBM PC machines 
        (with some competition from Sun).

In terms of availablity, Sun's RPC and Apollo's RPC are available for most
UNIX, VMS, and IBM PC type platforms.  Netwise's RPC is available on VMS,
and IBM PC, and some UNIX platforms.  Call the vendors for details.

I know that this message will generate a lot of mail from various Apollo,
DEC, and/or IBM  people saying that "Sun's RPC is not standard" or "We're
just as standard as they are, etc."  This makes good marketing hype, but it
is not true.

Consider the following machines: DEC's DECstation 3100, VAXstation 3100 and
VAX 6XXX machines, IBM's RT machines, Sun's Sun-3 and Sun-4 machines, and
Apollo's 3XXX, 4XXX and 10000 machines.  All of these machines have Sun's
RPC running on them out of the box.  They might claim that Sun's RPC is not 
standard, but they all use it.  I believe that Sun's RPC system is also
used by HP machines; if fact, I can not think of any modern UNIX machine 
which does not have it, although there must be some. 

The Apollo RPC system is available for many of these machine, (and Netwise
for some of them) so you can buy them if you want, but that is very 
different from having the RPC system on the machine when you buy it.  

Joshua Levy
--------                Quote: "If you haven't ported your program, it's not
Addresses:                      a portable program.  No exceptions."  
joshua@atherton.com          
{decwrl|sun|hpda}!athertn!joshua    work:(408)734-9822    home:(415)968-3718