DECNET/8 (was Re: RTS-8)

[Paul_Koning at Dell.com]

>I wonder if the TLK and LSN programs are compatible with the ones on RSX.

FWIW, TLK/LSN exists in RSTS also.

>Someone asked about compatibility between phase III and phase IV, which 
>Paul Koenig answered.
>I have another question, though.
>
>As I've read it, phase III nodes can talk with phase II nodes, just as 
>phase IV can talk with phase III. But can phase IV talk with phase II?
>Since DECNET/8 is phase II, this is somewhat interesting...

I thought the comment was that DECnet/8 is Phase III?

In any case, the question is no.  Compatibility is one phase up, so Phase III understands II, and IV understands III, but IV->II isn't supported.  It's possible that someone did implement that; it wouldn't be all that difficult.  But for example DECnet/E does not.  I just checked... the message code for the Phase II init message is in the definitions file, but it isn't mentioned in the routing layer code so the state machine for handling that message is absent.

	paul

PS. I noticed that the pdf/dec/DECnet directory on bitsavers.org has some Phase II and some Phase III docs (not clearly differentiated -- the 1978 docs are Phase II, the 1980 ones are Phase III).  But there are no Phase IV docs there.  I know they exist elsewhere; having those copied to bitsavers would be a good thing.