[ih] XEROX/PUP and Commercialization (was Re: FYI - Gordon Crovitz/WSJ on "Who Really Invented the Internet?")

[Bill Ricker]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 12:06 AM, Dave Crocker <dhc2 at dcrocker.net> wrote:

> In any event, your extended list of government proactive efforts for
> TCP/IP usage are well-taken.
>
> But to riff off of a phrase that Marshall Rose coined -- with enough
> thrust, pigs /can/ fly -- some of the alternatives would have required
> planetary levels of thrust.
>


Most on the list will remember, but so far only a side reference to
AutoDIN-II has acknowledged that US Government support for further
development of TCP/IP was once not a forgone conclusion.  Shortly after the
TCP/IP Flagday, much of the US Government was actively hostile to TCP/IP
and proactively supporting OSI.

The ISO OSI "ISORM" was mandated for civil and military procurements, much
as ADA was for military. I've never been clear on whether this was a DOD
peace treaty with NBS/NIST, or an attempt to bring NATO on-board for
air-land-battle interop without offending them with US-centric standards,
or undue influence from vendors who had greater sway in ANSI/ISO commitees
than in NWG's where vendor advantage was not a proper concern. Probably an
unholy combination. Some latterday supporters of TCP/IP were in the day
actively selling the on-paper elegant, in practice baroque or not yet
implemented, vendor-sponsored OSI style, calculating how much thrust their
pig would require.

(I was a couple doors down from Mike Padlipsky in the mid-80's -- I was on
the periphery of the ADA vs MLS and Kernel vs Crypto battles -- so had a
ring-side seat as one of Mike's confidants. I am the party guilty of
referring his Tea Bag Papers to the PH Field-Editor, which Mike then
expanded into /The Elements of Networking Style/. Hence my life sentence as
Literary Heir.)

Cheers (as Mike taught us to say),

Bill Ricker
custodian of the Padlipsky Archive
@n1vux bill.n1vux at gmail.com
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