Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac,att!ucbvax!ASYLUM.SF.CA.US!romkey From: romkey@ASYLUM.SF.CA.US (John Romkey) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc Subject: Clarkson 3C503 & PC-NFS Message-ID: <9103180924.AA19850@asylum.sf.ca.us> Date: 18 Mar 91 17:24:56 GMT References: <1991Mar18.071505.15940@sunee.waterloo.edu> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us Organization: The Internet Lines: 33 Date: 18 Mar 91 07:15:05 GMT From: Erick Engelke Organization: University of Waterloo Agreed, lets see some vendor show some leadership and make a proposed TCP API publicly available. My last post on this subject earned me some mail indicating this is a desired thing. I guess the biggest problem is the lost revenue in developer toolkits, huh? I should point out that this message is me speaking as John Romkey and not having anything to do with FTP Software. You know, this isn't the first time this has come up. Several of us talked about this briefly several years ago; there wasn't much interest in it among vendors. I don't believe there would be any lost revenue in developer toolkits; I think the biggest problem is that it's a political fiasco and huge resource-sink trying to get vendors to agree on such a thing. I imagine that all the vendors have more urgent uses for their resources, and it's not at all clear to me that the this effort would ever pay for itself. It's also a very big investment in resources to make something like that work right in all concerned environments, even if you have the specification in hand. TSR's are beasts, especially in the network world. Perhaps it's something that the academic community, which seems the most concerned about it, could take up. For that matter, FTP Software decided some years ago that its API was open and that others could implement according to its spec. The toolkit is not publically available, as it's a commercial product, but anyone may implement the programming interface. - john romkey Epilogue Technology USENET/UUCP/Internet: romkey@asylum.sf.ca.us voice/fax: 415 594-1141