Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!bagate!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: IAC (was Re: Clipboard (was Re: The Amiga's Future))
Message-ID: <22312@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 10 Jun 91 20:33:27 GMT
References: <1991Jun7.233654.24493@news.iastate.edu> <1991Jun8.010653.21706@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun8.030855.18976@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun8.044840.1404@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun8.074935.781@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun8.084126.3287@news.iastate.edu>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 34

In article <1991Jun8.084126.3287@news.iastate.edu> taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu writes:

>   Actually, networking on the Amiga in general is still very, very primitive.
>It is very rare to find Amigas used in a networking environement, while it
>is rare to find MACs not being used in a network.  If Amigas are being used
>in a network, they are probably running Amiga UNIX.  The networking 
>software for AmigaDOS has only been available from Commodore for less than
>two years, and is largely ignored (very few Amiga applications have 
>networking-related features).

Amigas have hooked up to "real" networks, like Ethernet, for quite some time.
Under industry standard protocols, like TCP/IP, NFS, X, etc.  It's mainly in 
the peer to peer area that they have been lacking.  

As for "network-related features" in Amiga applications, most applications
don't need any.  For basic network use, you mount a network based disk or
other device, and it looks just as if that device were resident on your 
system.  For instance, when I click on the VAX: icon on my Amiga here, I open
up my home directory on cbmvax, complete with Amiga icons and all.  Since the
OS has always supported file sharing and locking, there's no special magic
necessary.  You do need 2.0 for record locking.

Most PClone systems need something called a "network operating system", either
as a TSR, or compiled into the "network" version of each application, to 
handle networking, even without multitaking themselves (since any file on the
network is inherently subject to multitasking, even it's due to 100 single
tasking PCs banging on one file over a server).



-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"This is my mistake.  Let me make it good." -R.E.M.