[HECnet] Is 00000A a valid DECnet node name?

[Paul Koning]

> On Jun 18, 2021, at 5:03 PM, Thomas DeBellis <tommytimesharing at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ...
> I know that a DECnet node can be a maximum of six characters long with only the numerals 0 (zero) to 9 (nine) and the letters A to Z.  However, I noticed some code in COMND% that checks to see that a node name has at least one alphabetic character in it.  I had never thought about that and was wondering what the actual standard says (or where that standard is).

I forgot to answer that last question.  The answer is: the Network Management spec.  For example, the Phase IV spec (netman40.txt) says:

              node-name       A node name consists of one to six upper case
                              alphanumeric  characters  with  at  least one
                              alpha character.  A node name must be  unique
                              within a node and should be unique within the
                              network.

Interestingly enough, the Phase II spec (NSP) is less precise; it only says that nodenames are alphanumeric without explicitly requiring at least one letter.

	paul