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Aucbvax.5780 fa.digest-p utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!digest-people Thu Jan 14 04:51:48 1982 To TCP or not to TCP? >From mike@BRL Thu Jan 14 01:57:17 1982 Chris -

After having just about gotten over the 3-month mad dash to switch to long leader LAST winter, I am not really looking forwards to rushing into the conversion to TCP/IP, because of the work involved. However, all up and down the line within the ranks of DoD management inside both the Army and the Navy, everybody is backing up the decision to stand firm with 1-Jan-83 for the conversion. This is putting the heat on those of us who actually try to make these things happen, and the pressure is uncomfortable, but we will probably be able to make it.

This type of edict is not uncommon when working for the DoD; some manager will stipulate that something will happen "absolutely" by a certain date. All the technical people start worrying, and screaming, and carying on, claiming that "it can't be done in time". Management usually dumps some enormous amount of money onto the project, and wait and see. By this time, all the tech people have lost about 20 lbs (all brown), and are running around going crazy. Management usually gets what it wants. Of course, there are the occasional projects where things got cut just a bit too tight, and eveything falls down in flames....

I happen to feel that TCP and IP are *good* protocols, and certainly much better than what we are using now. It seems something of a miracle that they have been adopted as a standard; usually standards are things like COBOL that people go out of their way to avoid. It is merely unfortunate that the conversion timetable is so optimistic.

There exists AT LEAST one choice of software for UNIX systems (all machines),T(w)enexes, Multics, and IBMs, so the majority of the "ordinary" systems will at least be able to talk, even if not convieniently. How we will get to MACSYMA on MIT-MC remains a mystery, unless some briliant MIT student with a lot of time on his hands decides to power-code a TCP/IP implementation for the ITS machines.... -Mike

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