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From: clements@bbn.com (Bob Clements)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  FTP "STRU VMS" extension
Message-ID: <37882@bbn.COM>
Date: 28 Mar 89 20:32:07 GMT
References: <8903271958.AA02597@braden.isi.edu>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: clements@BBN.COM (Bob Clements)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 35

In article <8903271958.AA02597@braden.isi.edu> braden@VENERA.ISI.EDU writes:
> ...
>It should be noted that STRU P (PAGE structure) is in reality "STRU O
>TENEX", or  "STRU O TOPS20."  FTP would have been cleaner as a
>protocol and more powerful, I think, if we had adopted your idea years
>ago, and recognized that STRU P was just one example of a class of
>service that FTP ought to provide -- efficient operating-system-specific
>transfers.

Just as a small historic footnote, that's what the "tenex" thing
started as.  I wrote it, the first time.  It was in the NCP-based
FTP, pre-dating TCP.

As I implemented it (and put in some early RFC [which I can't
find -- I thought it was right between my Totally Awesome
Protocol spec and my SUDS manual]) ... Anyway, as I implemented
it the command was "TYPE XTP" and I proposed that "X" meant it
was reserved for use between consenting adults (er, compatible
systems), "T" was an example of the affected part of the
universe, here "TENEX", and "P" was the specific kludge being
added to the protocol, here a "Paged" file format.

(It was implemented in a panic over a weekend when we decided
to do a full file system transfer over the net for the first
time between two PDP-10s.)

(It also had checksums, for the first time.  NCP didn't have
checksums like TCP does, nor did NCP-based FTP.)

>
>Bob Braden
(Hi, Bob!)

/Rcc
clements@bbn.com