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From: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: IP and Coloured Book Software in the UK
Message-ID: <5358@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 15 Jun 91 15:51:23 GMT
Sender: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk
Organization: SPRU, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Lines: 38

(I sent the following to Michael by mail.  He thought that it, and his
reply, raised points that were worth a wider airing.  So here goes..)

Michael Padlipsky wrote:
> 
> Graham Thomas--
> 
> I'd be so fascinated to see an explanation of your depiction of TCP/IP
> as "SEMI-open" [emphasis added] that I'd even forego the pleasure
> of debating whether the originators of the "Coloured Books" SHOULD
> have realized [or, more locally appropriate, realised] that OSI
> would be a very long time in coming, in exchange.
> 
> cheers, map
> -------

Ah.  First I'd have to know whether you consider TCP/IP to be completely
open or completely closed!  Maybe I shouldn't have said 'open' and
should have said 'semi-standard' or something.  What I meant was, TCP/IP
is available for lots of different machines, and is common in certain
economic sectors, especially in education, (and not in others - here at
least, SNA rules the roost in banking), but it's not been ratified by
international standards committees.

But do tell me why the creators of Coloured Book software should have
realised, in the late 1970's, that TCP/IP would be ahead of OSI in 1991.

I should say that I don't have any stake in this - I'm a user rather
than a network designer.  I do have a social science interest in how
networks and standards are developed.  My own view is that, given what
they started from, the creators of JANET did well to build a unified
academic network in the UK by 1985.  The world has now changed, and some
of the choices that seemed good at the time have proved to be unviable
in the longer term.  I'd like to hear other people's views.

Cheers,

Graham