[HECnet] Third Release of Route20 User Mode DECnet Router

[Rob Jarratt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE <owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE> On Behalf
> Of Paul Koning
> Sent: 10 October 2020 21:51
> To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
> Subject: Re: [HECnet] Third Release of Route20 User Mode DECnet Router
> 
> 
> 
> > On Oct 10, 2020, at 5:11 AM, Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Everyone,
> >
> > As some of you may be aware, I have been writing my own DECnet router.
> Since the last formal release a few years ago I have added a few things, the
> details are here https://github.com/rjarratt/Route20. These were all on the Dev
> branch, which I know a few people have tried. I have been running the Dev
> branch for a long time myself, so I am sure it is stable. All I have done really is
> make the current Dev branch “official” by merging it to the master branch.
> >
> > I know Paul has been much more active than me lately on this front, so I am
> probably a bit behind, but if anyone would like to take a look that would be
> great.
> 
> I'll have to look at your work, have not done that in a long time.

To be honest, I have never actually looked at PyDECnet! But I should again acknowledge that you have provided me with invaluable help and insight.

> 
> My 2 cents worth: we're aiming at different things.  I set out to build a full
> DECnet implementation in Python, with emphasis on supporting all the parts of
> the architecture in a very straightforward way.  Efficiency was very much a
> secondary consideration.  As it happens, the performance is not bad, adequate
> for a lot of purposes.


> 
> A C based implement such as you did is somewhat harder to write, but much
> more efficient.  For anyone who is running on a slow machine, or under heavy
> load, your work is likely to be the right answer.  Also, of course, if you want to
> run on a machine where Python is not available or not efficient.
> 

My principal aim was to make it portable to as many machines as possible. Not only from a language point of view but also from a resources point of view. For both those reasons C is indeed a better language. So, yes, I think my implementation is likely to work on a wider range of machines. I have not written it to be particularly fast though, my implementation is quite naïve in many respects, because I wanted to keep it simple. I do want to support more parts of DECnet, but time is the usual enemy here.

Regards

Rob