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From: peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Sun's plans about Tcl.
Message-ID: <id.6WEE1.KRG@nmti.com>
Sender: peter@nmti.com (peter da silva)
Organization: Network/development platform support, NMTI
References: <9410240045.AA17925@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu> <MIKE.94Oct28151447@xypho.emn.fr> <id.QSDE1.J_A@nmti.com> <jack.783869870@news.cwi.nl>
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 19:52:37 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.python:2333 comp.lang.tcl:21306 comp.lang.scheme:10908

In article <jack.783869870@news.cwi.nl>, Jack Jansen <jack@cwi.nl> wrote:
> I beg to differ here. At the same time that NFS saw the light there
> was Todd Brunhoff's RFS and (shortly after) AT&T's RFS. I think that
> the newcastle connection was available even before NFS.

I've used RFS, and NFS, and some REAL remote file systems.

> In the case of NFS I think you can argue that it was the superior
> design, since it was the only one using a stateless server
> model.

RFS's problem were nothing to do with having a stateful server. OpenNET
had a stateful server, and was *way* better than either. RFS was just
baroquely complex.

We only adopted NFS after it was obvious that Intel was going to kill
OpenNET before they let anyone else touch it. RFS had most of NFS'
problems (the point to having a stateful file system is so you can
provide real UNIX file system semantics... RFS didn't...) plus its
own, plus it wasn't effectively given away like NFS was. It wasn't
competition the way Perl and Tcl and so on are.

And, as you point out, it's harder for an extension language to get a
lock on a market the way a network protocol can. So it's doubly tougher
for Sun to push Tcl.
-- 
Peter da Silva                                            `-_-'
Network Management Technology Incorporated                 'U`
1601 Industrial Blvd.     Sugar Land, TX  77478  USA
+1 713 274 5180                       "Hast Du heute schon Deinen Wolf umarmt?"
