RFC 282 (rfc282) - Page 1 of 8
Graphics meeting report
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group M. A. Padlipsky
Request for Comments: 282 Project MAC
NIC: 8164 December 8, 1971
GRAPHICS MEETING REPORT
The second Network Graphics Group Meeting was convened at the
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab at 6:00p.m. Sunday, November
21st. (Attendees are listed in the Appendix.) Jim Michener served
as chairman, and I either volunteered or was volunteered to serve as
recording secretary, with Karl Kelly's assistance in keeping notes.
An agenda was agreed upon for the meeting, covering three major
topics: 1) reports on the experiments which had been set up at the
July meeting, 2) prepared talks by attendees who had general points
to raise about Network Graphics, and 3) specification of a "first-
pass" graphics protocol. Before the reports were given, some general
discussion was held on two important topics: the "context" problem
(just how, in the Network sense, are graphics connections
established, and who is supposed to do what for whom), and what might
be called the "console types" problem (should there be a separate
protocol for inherently static storage tube type devices and one for
inherently interactive refresh type devices which have their own
processors, or can we come up with some sort of continuous -- or
layered -- single protocol which covers both). Both points were
noted as being necessary to keep in mind for the protocol
specification phase of the meeting, an apparent consensus emerged
that a single protocol would be preferable, and the reports on
experiments were turned to.
REPORTS ON EXPERIMENTS
RAND - UCSB
Eric Harslem of RAND and Ron Stoughton of UCSB reported on their
experiment, which entailed use of the UCSB On-Line System (OLS) from
RAND Videographics terminals. As demonstrated by a videotape which
was shown, the experiment was successful. An RFC describing the
simple protocol they used is forthcoming. As noted in their
discussion and in the RFC, the experimental protocol is not being
proposed as a Network standard. In addition to using OLS from RAND,
a subsidiary experiment tested the sensitivity of the hook-up to
variations in the size of the allocations (in the Host-to-Host
Protocol sense) given at the RAND end. It seemed clear from the
videotape of the same pictures being drawn at various allocation
levels that larger allocations allow for noticeably smoother
Padlipsky
