harper@csc.fi (09/21/90)
> Incidentally, I notice you give two addresses: >>clark@mshri.utoronto.ca (Internet) >>clark@utoroci (Netnorth/Bitnet) > Only the (Internet) one do I understand. I have no idea how someone > not on Internet should reach me. Thus, I remain... > > -David Steffen- (steffen@mbir.bcm.tmc.edu) <= Internet I once wrote a issue of BioBit explaining something of the of nameing conventions regarding European computers. It is not as cryptic as it looks, and once you know the secrets behind the conventions you can quite easily determine where a machine is situated and what type of machine it is. It goes like this. The essential information is as follows: Country - Location - Institute - Software - System Nbr. An example for such a node-name DDAGSI31 is shown below: +---+------+---------+---+---+ | D | D A | G S I | 3 | 1 | +---+------+---------+---+---+ --- ------ --------- --- --- | | | | | | | | | +---> System nbr. 1 - 9 and A - Z (optional) | | | +-------> Software: MVS JES3 (1 digit) | | +--------------> Institute's initials: GSI (max 4 digits | +----------------------> Location: DA = Darmstadt (2 digits) +----------------------------> Country: D = Deutschland (1 digit) As country identifier the letters from the international car registration plates should be used (where possible): D = Germany (West) E = Spain I = Italy C = Switzerland (CH) H = Netherlands (NL) (Holland) etc... To identify the city/location of the node you should use 2 letters. Again the car registration numbers can be used in some countries. Single letter signs are expanded with a 0 as fill character to cover 2 positions in the nodename: Germany: DA = Darmstadt, HH = Hamburg, B0 = Berlin etc. Italy: PI = Pisa, MI = Milano, R0 = Roma etc. Switzerland: GE = Geneve, BE = Bern etc. Other countries with no meaningful city code numbers may select significant location ids. e.g. PA = Paris, LY = Lyon etc. Institute initials may span 3 characters, 4 characters if system number is not used. e.g FUB = Free University Berlin EMBL = European Molecular Biology Laboratory The identification of the software system running at that node is given by the following numbers: 0 = all software not registered under 1 - 9 1 = VM/370 or VM/SP 2 = MVS JES2 3 = MVS JES3 4 = BS3000 (Siemens/Fujitsu) 5 = VMS (VAX/DEC) 6 = UNIX (VAX/DEC) 7 = MULTICS (H/BULL) 8 = BS2000 NJE (Siemens) 9 = The system nbr. is optional and is used to differentiate between several nodes at an installation. So putting it all together the if you get mail from NODE DHDEMBL5 it can be interpreted as a EARN node in Germany (D) in the city of Heidelberg (HD) at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) which is running under the VMS (5) operating system. Now isn't that handy to know if you are on a VAX machine and want to do a SEND/FILE/VMSDUMP :-) Clear and simple wasn't it... It might never be of any use to you but now at least you can understand what is going on. EARN is relatively regimented but BITNET is a different bag of worms. Rob "at your service" Harper.