Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!tinman.cis.ohio-state.edu!bob From: bob@tinman.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: X Terminals for Sun hosts over dial up phone lines Message-ID: Date: 22 Feb 89 20:43:32 GMT References: <2566@antique.UUCP> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Followup-To: comp.windows.x Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science Lines: 29 In-reply-to: vixie@decwrl.dec.com's message of 22 Feb 89 07:23:49 GMT In suggesting the elimination of SLIP in favor of a pair of Telebits, I was thinking of the GraphOn X terminal's model of the world, as described by WOOD@SMITHKLINE.COM ("Bill Wood, Upper Merion IS X5163 L331") in <8902220455.AA27885@expo.lcs.mit.edu>. Since its server runs on a UNIX host and simply handles its display on the terminal, IP is unneeded, TCP for reliable streams is overkill, and in-modem compression sometimes wins. (If it doesn't win, then at least you break even.) Mr. Wood even reports that simple 9600bps modems are survivable. Certainly IP is the correct way to glue something into the internet if it has a bit more ambitious view of its responsibilities, such as a terminal (or certainly a workstation) running its own server locally. In that (perhaps more common) case, IP (or some other routing and delivery mechanism) is necessary and TCP (or some other stream mechanism) is an appropriate layer. In article vixie@decwrl.dec.com (Paul A Vixie) writes: Anyway, the point of this long ramblingness is that a raw byte stream, even if reliable and sequenced as in the Telebit, is not a good match for X. And if you don't like SLIP for your serial protocol, I'm listening: suggest a datagram-oriented alternative. I spend some days evangelizing others to the benefits of internetworking, so I am aware of the joys of full generality, but only where it's appropriate. It seems, from the uproar over my apparent "suggestion that TCP/IP be abandoned", that more folks think of terminals with that latter more ambitious view than with the former simplistic outlook. I need to pay more attention to my terms...