The STREAMS non-inclusion in Linux

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Apr 20, 2011, at 8:09 AM, Omer Zak wrote:

> None of them has details about the reasons, which led Linux Kernel
> developers to reject STREAMS.  STREAMS was only vaguely described as
> poorly-designed and resource-consuming.

There were two competing implemtations of TCP/IP. UCB created sockets,  
which is sort of in the public domain. AT&T (I think they  
subcontracted BBN to actually do it) created streams.

My guess is that streams is based on AT&T patents and was never  
reverse engineered.

So UNIX systems based on SYS V had streams, while UNIX systems based  
on BSD had sockets. SYS V Release 3.2 which was the first combined  
release (AT&T Kernel, both SYS V and BSD user land) had both.

I've never looked but AFAIK, MacOS which is the latest "real" UNIX has  
sockets but not streams.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson,  N3OWJ/4X1GM
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to misquote it.