dave@arnold.UUCP (Dave Arnold) (02/22/88)
In a previous posting, I asked a question regarding standard C-binding
network interfaces, and any work currently in progress on the
subject. Following is what I considered to be the definitive
repsonse.
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From: <uunet!likewise!attunix!sfdic!ssa>
Posted-Date: Tue, 26 Jan 88 10:29:34 est
To: vdelta!dave
Subject: Re: /usr/group Network Interface Working Group
Status: R
Dave,
I have good news and bad news for you. Luckily, most of it
is good. First of all, I am the right person to contact. I've been
chairing the committee for a little over a year now. Unfortunately,
we have not made a tremendous amount of progress for various
reasons.
The interface that you proposed is exactly what I am personally shooting
for. The committee's goal is to propose an interface that is source
code portable across POSIX-conforming systems. To do this, we classified
networking applications into 3 catagories:
1) sophisticated - an application that knows it is running on a network
and makes use of protocol or network-specific features (we do
not address this type of application - it is inherently non-
portable)
2) knowledgeable - an application that knows it is running on a network
but does NOT make any use of protocol or network-specific
features (in other words, it really wants a "reliable" bit pipe).
We are working on this type of application first.
3) naive - an application that does not know that it is running over
a network (e.g. a cat process that has its output directed to a
network device). We deferred dealing with this type of
application until we finish the knowledgeable application.
It took a fair amount of time to define the problem as stated above.
At our last meeting, one of the members volunteered to write a proposal
off-line to present at the next meeting in Dallas on Feb. 8&9.
This proposal (nor any other) has not been approved yet.
Anyhow, to obtain our documents, you should call the /usr/group office at
408-986-8840 and ask for whichever documents your interested.
The complete list is:
NI-86-001 A Comparison of Sockets and the Transport Library Interface
NI-86-002 Palo Alto Meeting Minutes
NI-87-001 Portable Network Interface
NI-87-002 Washington D.C. Meeting Minutes
NI-87-003 Toronto Meeting Minutes
NI-87-004 POSIX Portable Network Interface (PNI) Issues Pertinant(sic) to
Definition of a Theory of Operation
NI-87-005 Seattle Meeting Minutes
NI-87-006 Nashua Meeting Minutes
NI-87-007 Proposal for a POSIX Portable Network Interface (PNI) Definition
If you have any trouble obtaining any of them, let me know. If you would
like, I can add you to our mailing list so you can obtain everything
as it is written. Of course, you are also welcome to attend our meetings.
They are completely open; all that you have to do is be there.
Another note of interest is that we have had a newsgroup
(usrgroup.netinter) established for us to stimulate discussion.
Unfortunately, that group is not being fed into my machine at the moment,
so I have no idea what, if anything, has been posted.
If you have more specific questions, feel free to contact me.
BTW, if you didn't get the implication above, the bad news is that the
interface is not even close to being a standard, so if you had hoped to
use it in a soon-to-be-released product, it won't be there. The good
news is that the work is underway and that you can help shape the
standard.
Steve Albert
AT&T
190 River Road
Room A-114
Summit, NJ 07901
(201)-522-6104
...!attunix!ssa
--
Dave Arnold
dave@arnold.UUCP {cci632|uunet}!ccicpg!arnold!dave