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Aucbvax.1754 fa.apollo utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!JWALKER@BBNA Mon Jun 15 10:27:40 1981 What's the same Randy's message from DARCOM made the point that their workstations and their big machines run "the same" software. Then, he mentioned that the "send" command on his little machine doesn't actually get the mail to the ARPAnet by itself but rather hands it on to one of the big machines to do the job. So, really, the different machines don't have/need the same software because they don't do the same jobs.

This highlights an interesting issue, that of the users' view of where the capability resides. Maybe what he is really saying is that the users have just one set of commands and the machines between them divvy up the work. This is really what an integrated user interface is all about. The users know what capabilities are available and how to request them but can and do remain unaware of what computer actually does the job.

Large jobs (for example, formatting a 300 page document) ought to be handled on large computers. Doing it on a small computer, you have two kinds of choices -- make the program very small (not powerful enough for the job) or make the program very slow (tying up your workstation for hours). With a large computer lurking nearby, your small machine can send the big job off for appropriate processing.

Of course, having big machines in the basement costs money. How does DARCOM go about factoring in the big machine cost into the $5-6K per station figure? Was that hardware cost or a system price that includes development costs?

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