[ih] Impact of history on today's technology [was: why did CC happen at all?]

[Scott Brim]

I believe I understand exactly what you mean. Grand vision is limited by
what's possible at the time, and future grand vision is limited by what is
in place. Consider MIBs (and SGMP/SNMP), and what it's been like trying to
get rid of them.

Scott
On Sep 4, 2014 3:54 PM, "Brian E Carpenter" <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I think there is a rather philosophical history question here,
> all the same.
>
> What, in general, is the impact of historical technological
> issues on current protocols and practices? To take a completely
> different example, there was a considerable period when handling
> larger than 16 bit quantities in minicomputers was awkward and
> slow, so there was a tendency to design stuff around that constraint.
> Or consider the cost of electronics and cabling in the token ring vs
> Ethernet argument. I'm sure there are a dozen examples of tech issues
> from the 1960s and 1970s that still have significant impact today.
>
> Regards
>    Brian Carpenter
>
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