[ih] A laugh and a question

[Noel Chiappa]

Interesting: RFC889 (December 1983) says:

  Among the various measurement packages is the original PING (Packet
  InterNet Groper) program used over the last six years for numerous tests
  and measurements of the Internet system and its client nets. This program
  contains facilities to send various kinds of probe packets, including ICMP
  Echo messages, process the reply and record elapsed times and other
  information in a data file, as well as produce real-time snapshot
  histograms and traces.

The date on that RFC is very interesting, because Mike's Ping history page
(http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ping.html) says:

  My original impetus for writing PING for 4.2a BSD UNIX came from an offhand
  remark in July 1983 by Dr. Dave Mills .. in which he described some work
  that he had done on his "Fuzzball" LSI-11 systems to measure path latency
  using timed ICMP Echo packets. 
  In December of 1983 I encountered some odd behavior of the IP network at
  BRL. Recalling Dr. Mills' comments, I quickly coded up the PING program

Presumably the work described in RFC889 predates December 1983 (the date on
the RFC); and that material was also what Mike referred to in his mention of
"described some work that he had done".

So your "PING (Packet InterNet Groper)" program predates Mike's, and your use
of the name is at least contemporaneous, and probably pre-dates, Mike's. You
don't happen to have any older rough drafts of 889 lying around, do you? If
so, that could definitively show your use of the term pre-dating Mike's.


Just out of curiousity, I assume you had the sonar analogy in mind when you
came up with the backronym (?) "PING (Packet InterNet Groper)"?

Do you recall if the term "ping" was already in use in the community at the
time, or was that something you introduced? (I just don't recall, alas!)

	Noel