A modest supposition

	I've been reading through David Burdett's draft on the
requirements for XML messaging for much of today, interrupted by a
couple of meetings with router and switch vendors.  Something about
the contrast has caused me to posit two things:

Constant efforts to achieve efficiency by collapsing lower layers
(e.g. POS's replacement of ATM) are and forever will be balanced by
the constant reinvention of those lower layers at the application
layer.	

more specifically,

Every messaging protocol expands until it replicates the control
mechanisms of TCP.

	It's probably a good thing, really; it represents the
Darwinian adaptive radiation being balanced by natural selection in
the network world, or justifies the fundamental control structures
needed throughout the stack, or something like that. Or maybe I need a
bit more coffee.
				
				Ted Hardie

Received on Tuesday, 25 January 2000 20:30:44 UTC