Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!CHEETAH.NYSER.NET!mrose
From: mrose@CHEETAH.NYSER.NET (Marshall Rose)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: CMOT Implementations
Message-ID: <25244.637863408@cheetah.nyser.net>
Date: 19 Mar 90 16:16:48 GMT
References: <1990Mar17.062619.6200@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: tcp-ip@nic.ddn.mil
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Well, I haven't seen the message you have replied to, but I guess I
should speak up.  If, for the moment, we forget the rather tainted
history of CMIP in the Internet, the politics, failures, and so on,
the issue still boils down to one of technical credibility.

If you start comparing OSI application services and protocols (MHS, DS,
FTAM, VT, CMIP), you see that the skill set is all over the board.
Things like message handling and directory, whilst ambitious, work
because they are basically solid protocols well-suited for a particular
domain.  In those two cases, I think the argument of "let's get it fully
implemented and it will work out".  In the case of FTAM and VT, their
scope of focus is simply too large to be workable, e.g., the most charitable
thing I've heard said about FTAM is that "it's both a dessert topping
and a floor wax".  The dessert topping part refers to record access (NFS-like)
features and the floor wax part refers to bulk transfer (FTP-like)
features. 

SNMP works well at network management because it is well-suited towards
the task.  When you need to cast lightning bolts, you conduct it through gold
(SNMP) not paper (CMIP).  This is akin to saying that SNMP is a network
management protocol, and *perhaps* CMIP is a system management protocol,
though I have no confidence in the latter portion since all the CMIP
proponents I cross swords with keep talking about doing both, so they
have fallen into the dessert topping/floor wax trap.  As you might
guess, anything that can be used as a floor wax probably doesn't taste
too good, and anything that can be used as a dessert topping probably
doesn't clean too well.  But, that's CMIP for you.

/mtr