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From: silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Bye Bye BART
Summary: Is VMS the culprit?
Message-ID: <1991Feb14.004203.29274@cs.dal.ca>
Date: 14 Feb 91 00:42:03 GMT
References: <1991Feb12.165927.21941@pa.dec.com>
Sender: silvert@cs.dal.ca.UUCP (Bill Silvert)
Reply-To: bill%biomel@cs.dal.ca
Organization: Habitat Ecology Div., Bedford Inst. of Oceanography
Lines: 29

In article <1991Feb12.165927.21941@pa.dec.com> reid@wrl.dec.com (Brian Reid) writes:
>VMS and DECNET do not have the concept of queueing mail. When you send a
>message, either it is delivered instantly or it bounces. The idea is that you
>want the sender to know instantly if his message did not get through.
>As a result, VMS mail users have, through the years, grown accustomed to
>believing that if they do not get a "message sent" message, then their
>message did not get sent.

>Whenever mail is relayed from one network to another, rather than just queued, 
>the concept of "immediate delivery" is somewhat meaningless, because you
>haven't really delivered the mail, but rather have just handed it off to some
>intermediate postman. But user expectations are still very strong: if a
>user sends an internetwork message, and doesn't get back a "message sent"
>reply, his experience leads him to believe that the message was lost.

Now the situation is becoming clear.  I'm supposed to use a network like
that at work, and the experience is a real shock to a Unix-user like me
(I hope that isn't called a Unich!).  When I send mail to Vancouver,
which is 5000 km and 4 time zones away, if my VMS system doesn't connect
it does not send the mail.  No queuing!  No wonder Herr K. got confused.

If there is a message in all of this, it is that before we flame
individuals in public and pillory them by name, we should send mail and
ask for an explanation.  Something about a fair trial...
-- 
William Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division, Bedford Inst. of Oceanography
P. O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CANADA B2Y 4A2.  Tel. (902)426-1577
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