> On Feb 22, 2026, at 2:37 PM, Robert Armstrong via cctalk
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Paul Koning <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On the other hand, the even more obscure DECnet/8 was found a couple
>> of years ago. Its main limitation ....
>
> Besides being Phase-I, DECnet/8 is not a "complete" implementation. The
> only application provided is a console to console talk program that can only
> talk to other PDP-8 nodes. There's no FAL, CTERM/RTERM, NFT, NCP, or any of
> the other things you might expect. I think DEC expected customers to write
> their own RTS/8 and DECnet-8 applications.
>
> Bob
True, but most of those were not defined yet. Certainly no CTERM, and NCP
didn't reallly exist until Phase III (though TOPS-20 Phase II does have an NCP,
with syntax different from the later one matching no specification I have ever
seen).
The object number registry suggests there was an early DAP, predating the "5.6"
version implemented in DECnet/E, but I have never seen a spec for that either.
TLK/LSN is not quite compatible with the version in other DECnet
implementations but close, and tweaking an implementation to support both
flavors of the protocol isn't hard.
paul
