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From: jbvb@FTP.COM (James B. Van Bokkelen)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Sockets vs streams.  An attempt to answer the original question
Message-ID: <9008311500.AA12356@ftp.com>
Date: 31 Aug 90 15:00:47 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: jbvb@ftp.com
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 20


    ....  The complexities have to be present for the occasional sophisticated
    customer, but the simple customer shouldn't have to worry about them.  The
    Unix tty interface is quite complex, but most programs can ignore most
    of it -- if they want to print an error message, they just say
    "fprintf(stderr, ..." and it works.  That's the way the network interface
    should be too:  some simple way to open a connection (I find it impossible
    to comprehend why 4BSD doesn't have an open-connection-to-service-X-on-
    machine-Y library function, given how stereotyped and how messy this job
    is), read/write for i/o, close for shutdown (and ioctl for option setting
    etc. for those who care).  That's all most customers want.

I see where our viewpoints differ: I am selling applications to end-users,
and I intend to support them.  Most of the end-users who use our Development
Kit for one-off or in-house applications are probably quite satisfied with
open/read/write/close.  However, I am careful to advise any OEMs who develop
for resale to pay close attention to the flags and error codes...

James B. VanBokkelen		26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA  01880
FTP Software Inc.		voice: (617) 246-0900  fax: (617) 246-0901