Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway
From: ALGOLD%LNCC2@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Alexandre Leib Grojsgold)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400
Subject: MHS documentation on-line ??
Message-ID: <9009200545.aa20609@ICS.UCI.EDU>
Date: 20 Sep 90 13:22:07 GMT
Lines: 24
Approved: usenet@ICS.UCI.EDU

People interested in getting MHS (and OSI) documentation should read an
interesting article by Carl Malamud, published in Data Communications
International, June 1990, vol 19, n. 7,  pp.- 29-30, called "Paying by
the inch for OSI documentation".

Some selected parts of this article:

"I've got some advice for anyone interested in obtaining documentations
for the Open System Interconnections: Bring your checkbook, it's not
cheap!. Be prepared to pay $1 or more a page, wich adds up to several thousand
dollars for a reasonably complete documentation for these critical standards"

"The big difference between TCP/IP and OSI is that the latter is copyrighted
by ISO, while TCP/IP is in the public domain"

"The universities are really the key. Students spend hours learning the intrica
cies of TCP/IP."

"... because of their cost, OSI documents are acquired only when absolutely
needed. The result (...) is that faculty and students (...) are woefully igno-
rant of ISO specifications and protocols."


Don't you believe that something should be done to change this situation ?