RFC 328

RFC 328: Suggested Telnet Protocol Changes 💖

Okay bestie, here's the deal with this one. 🎀

• RFC number: 328
• Title: Suggested Telnet Protocol Changes
• Author: Jon Postel, Computer Science, UCLA-NMC 👑
• NIC number: 9635
• Date: 29 April 72
• Category: Telnet
• References: RFC 328
• Obsoletes or updates: nothing is listed 🦋

This is part of the Network Working Group series, and Jon is literally proposing changes to the Telnet protocol. 🧚

Jon says that if nobody sends a substantial negative response by 15 May 72, everyone will assume these changes are wanted and they'll go into any "Official Telnet Protocol." Iconic energy, honestly. 💅

He has three big proposals:

• Drop the idea of a "minimum" implementation, and require a standard implementation that includes every part of the protocol. ✨
• Eliminate the DATA TYPE signals. 🌸
• Do away with the HIDE YOUR INPUT signal. 🙈

Arguments

Here's his reasoning, and it's honestly a masterclass. 🔥

Standard Implementation

Okay so an accepted implementation that leaves out part of the protocol basically says that the missing parts aren't useful or aren't expected to be used, and that other mechanisms will be built to handle those jobs instead. 🙄 Jon's take is that there should be no minimum implementation. There should only be the standard implementation, which includes the whole protocol. 💜

Data Types

The DATA TYPE signals are meant to let the communicating processes switch from ASCII to some other code set. ✨ The problem is that the other code sets that were suggested can't carry the Telnet signals. So once you switch, Telnet doesn't apply anymore. 💀 There's also no way to get back to ASCII or Telnet, so the conversation is totally "out of control." 😭

Hide Your Input

The HIDE YOUR INPUT signal is supposed to tell the user's Telnet process to hide as much of the user's following input as it can. 🫶 The catch is figuring out how much input counts. Jon says it's really hard to find a hiding method that works across every combination of systems and terminals, so the signal doesn't really help in any meaningful way. Not it. 🙅‍♀️

[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ] [ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the ] [ direction of Alex McKenzie. 12/96 ]