Difference between revisions of "Talk:Transmission Control Protocol"
From Computer History Wiki
(Pre-TCPv4 code?) |
(→Pre-v4 code?: Not that I know of - see comments) |
||
| Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
Is there any TCP code preserved from before v4? [[User:Larsbrinkhoff|Larsbrinkhoff]] ([[User talk:Larsbrinkhoff|talk]]) 12:06, 23 January 2025 (CET) | Is there any TCP code preserved from before v4? [[User:Larsbrinkhoff|Larsbrinkhoff]] ([[User talk:Larsbrinkhoff|talk]]) 12:06, 23 January 2025 (CET) | ||
| + | |||
| + | : Not that I know of. There were only a very few implementations of earlier versions, and they were never widely distributed, being mostly held privately by the early experimenters (as local, personal forks of the 'base' OS), so unless they hoarded one, they are gone forever. | ||
| + | : The timeline (blow) is useful to consider. As best I can quickly recreate it (I don't know of a work that contains this - do you? - I have yet to search widely in standard references, although I looked, and Abbate doesn't have it) this is the version history: | ||
| + | :* 2 [https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien5.pdf IEN-5] Mar-77 - the last version before the split into TCP and IP started | ||
| + | :* 2.5 - not really a different protocol; IIRC the existing header formats were retained, and various fields 'assigned' to TCP or IP (i.e. routers only looked at these) | ||
| + | :* 3 [https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien21.pdf - IEN-21] Jan-78 - a hard split, and with variable length addresses | ||
| + | :* 4 [https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien44.pdf - IEN-44] et al Jun-78 - go back to shortish, fixed length addresses | ||
| + | : In addition to these, the [[Internet Experiment Note|IEN]] trail contains a number of other things that were just 'proposals', that were never implemented by everyone/anyone ([https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien18.pdf IEN-18], "TCP Revisions"; [https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien26.pdf IEN-26], "A Proposed New Internet Header Format"; [https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien27.pdf IEN-27], "A Proposal for TCP Version 3.1 Header Format"; [https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien41.pdf IEN-41], "Internetwork Protocol Specification - Version 4" [''not the final'']). | ||
| + | : So if you look at the list of [[TCP and IP bake offs]], only the very first (December, 1978) might have used something other than V4 - and the OS/360 and Multics ones are almost definitely gone. You can try asking Haverty if he still has a copy of the MACRO-11 TCP for UNIX (early versions of that were provably V2.5), or Mathis, to see if he still has a copy of the V2.5 version of his (I have the V4 version), but I suspect it's unlikely. | ||
| + | : Anyway, I will add the table above to the article, and see if I can find any more references to the early history (it is not even in Abbate). I suspect the best place to look for records of the ''early'' history are the meeting notes. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 18:48, 23 January 2025 (CET) | ||
Revision as of 18:49, 23 January 2025
Pre-v4 code?
Is there any TCP code preserved from before v4? Larsbrinkhoff (talk) 12:06, 23 January 2025 (CET)
- Not that I know of. There were only a very few implementations of earlier versions, and they were never widely distributed, being mostly held privately by the early experimenters (as local, personal forks of the 'base' OS), so unless they hoarded one, they are gone forever.
- The timeline (blow) is useful to consider. As best I can quickly recreate it (I don't know of a work that contains this - do you? - I have yet to search widely in standard references, although I looked, and Abbate doesn't have it) this is the version history:
- 2 IEN-5 Mar-77 - the last version before the split into TCP and IP started
- 2.5 - not really a different protocol; IIRC the existing header formats were retained, and various fields 'assigned' to TCP or IP (i.e. routers only looked at these)
- 3 - IEN-21 Jan-78 - a hard split, and with variable length addresses
- 4 - IEN-44 et al Jun-78 - go back to shortish, fixed length addresses
- In addition to these, the IEN trail contains a number of other things that were just 'proposals', that were never implemented by everyone/anyone (IEN-18, "TCP Revisions"; IEN-26, "A Proposed New Internet Header Format"; IEN-27, "A Proposal for TCP Version 3.1 Header Format"; IEN-41, "Internetwork Protocol Specification - Version 4" [not the final]).
- So if you look at the list of TCP and IP bake offs, only the very first (December, 1978) might have used something other than V4 - and the OS/360 and Multics ones are almost definitely gone. You can try asking Haverty if he still has a copy of the MACRO-11 TCP for UNIX (early versions of that were provably V2.5), or Mathis, to see if he still has a copy of the V2.5 version of his (I have the V4 version), but I suspect it's unlikely.
- Anyway, I will add the table above to the article, and see if I can find any more references to the early history (it is not even in Abbate). I suspect the best place to look for records of the early history are the meeting notes. Jnc (talk) 18:48, 23 January 2025 (CET)
