[HN Gopher] RFC 1: Host Software (1969)
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       RFC 1: Host Software (1969)
        
       Author : vages
       Score  : 68 points
       Date   : 2021-04-07 07:14 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tools.ietf.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tools.ietf.org)
        
       | LocalH wrote:
       | This isn't the only date that could be considered the "birthday"
       | of the Internet. What about October 29, 1969 or January 1, 1983?
       | Arguably, either the first intersite link, or the first use of
       | TCP/IP on the network, could be considered just as much the birth
       | of the Internet as we know it as the date of RFC1.
        
         | sybercecurity wrote:
         | True. RFC 1 is considered the seed of what is now the IETF
         | though.
         | 
         | I've had the honor of working with Steve Crocker on a project
         | years ago. Great guy and still loved to roll up his sleeves and
         | work on problems.
        
         | rswail wrote:
         | Arguably when there was a inter-network link, not inter-host
         | was when the internet was born. But really, like horses,
         | there's no real implications one way or the other.
         | 
         | Make it the start of the Unix epoch.
        
           | gumby wrote:
           | The early work (including this RFC) was done on 36-bit
           | machines, and no unix machines would be on the net for more
           | than half a decade (and it was at least another decade, and a
           | conversion of the net to IP, before they were a significant
           | number).
           | 
           | So probably not an appropriate choice.
        
       | CamTin wrote:
       | > We propose to implement this solution by creating a language
       | for console control. This language, current named DEL, would be
       | used by subsystem designers to specify what components are needed
       | in a terminal and how the terminal is to respond to inputs from
       | its keyboard, Lincoln Wand, etc. Then, as a part of the initial
       | protocol, the remote HOST would send to the local HOST, the
       | source language text of the program which controls the console.
       | This program would have been by the subsystem designer in DEL,
       | but will be compiled locally.
       | 
       | This bit is interesting. Javascript and AJAX in 1969!
        
         | gumby wrote:
         | If you're interested in remote (client-based) rendering and I/O
         | (as opposed to TELNET (or these days ssh) where the characters
         | are simply sent across), look at RFC 734. Emacs, and a small
         | number of other programs, used this so that you could do local
         | editing and update to compensate for the slow networks back
         | then. It was also supported by the MIT lisp machines and
         | descendants.
         | 
         | It was actually like a networked channel controller; the latter
         | was mocked by the design of Unix and yet today all IO is done
         | that way.
         | 
         | The author of that RFC was also the author of IMAP.
        
           | CamTin wrote:
           | Thanks, this does look interesting! I find any old ITS-
           | related technical discussions like this (despite it being
           | ostensibly OS-neutral standards language) to be very
           | difficult to pore over. Sometimes I wonder if I'm computer-
           | literate or just Unix-literate! Maybe one of these days I
           | will get ITS running in an emulator and see what I've been
           | missing.
        
       | djcapelis wrote:
       | Amusingly, RFC4 is naturally dated a couple weeks earlier than
       | RFC1.
        
         | elc0c0 wrote:
         | Yep RFC4 is dated 24 March 1969 and whereas RFC1 is dated 7
         | April 1969.
        
       | hndata wrote:
       | Darius Kazemi blogged about the first 365 rfcs over a year:
       | https://write.as/365-rfcs/table-of-contents
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-07 23:03 UTC)