Re: HTML-Browser for the GS??????

[mcafee@umich.edu (Sean McAfee)]

In article <1995Sep28.172410.21269@freenet.victoria.bc.ca>,
Marc Sira <toh@freenet.Victoria.BC.CA> wrote:
>In our last episode, mcafee@umich.edu (Sean McAfee) said:
>>Oh, the hell with it--I can't keep it a secret any more.  I've been working
>>on my own PPP implementation for quite a while now.

>Cool. In theory, and given a consistent interface, you should be able to
>make your PPP layer work with <someone else's> IP layer (several people
>have talked about working on one). You just need a workable IPCP, or
>something equivalent.

I got one.  The way my PPP works now is, there's one process that slurps up
stuff from the modem, unescaping characters as it goes.  When a complete
frame is received, if the frame check sequence matches up, the address of
the frame is passed to a second process via GNO/ME's Port IPC mechanism.
The second process calls the appropriate subroutine to handle the frame
based on its content, while the first one continues sucking up modem data.
Fortunately, both preceive() and read() are blocking operations, so there
should be very little load overhead when there's no modem activity.

So the upshot is, if someone were to write an IP layer with a function that
just took the address of a packet and acted on it, my PPP process could
pass it the appropriate info, no problem.  However, even if someone else
writes an IP layer, I'll probably continue working on my own, if only
because I've already invested so much time (and not a little money for
reference material) in the project.  I'd still make PPP available to
another IP author, of course.

>I'm glad to hear someone is working on PPP as opposed to SLIP - the latter
>is really a crock, as far as being a "protocol".

Well, it wasn't really my choice to do PPP; I just wanted Internet
connectivity.  However, the University of Michigan doesn't offer SLIP, only
PPP.  So my hands were pretty much tied.

--
Sean McAfee         |    "Mind if I smoke?"
mcafee@umich.edu    |    "No.  Mind if I burp pastrami belches in your face?"