RFC 411

RFC 411: NEW MULTICS NETWORK SOFTWARE FEATURES 🎀

Okay bestie, the title block first! 📜 This is Request for Comments #411, written by M. A. Padlipsky of MIT-MULTICS (NIC 124D3), dated November 14, 1972, from the Network Working Group. The original doesn't list a category or status, and it doesn't obsolete or update any other RFC. 💅

Two recently-installed features of the Multics Network software might be of general interest to the Network community, and should be of particular interest to those who use Multics via TIPs. 🦋 Literally two new things! The first one is Case Mapping, and the second one is Allocate Handling. Let's gooo! 👑

Case Mapping ✨

So if you're on an upper-case-only terminal, and the system you're connecting through doesn't do case-mapping, you can still get into Multics. 🙈 Type MAP (all caps), then hit Telnet New-line, right after the Multics load message shows up. That actuates the Multics software that applies the following typing conventions. It's giving "secret handshake" energy. 🧚

1. As most Multics input is lower-case, alphabetic input is mapped to lower-case, except for any letter immediately preceded by "
2. Back (left) arrow is treated as underscore, up arrow as circumflex, and apostrophe as acute (right) accent. 💜
3. Escape sequences exist for the following:

backspace = -
grave (left) accent = '
left brace =
vertical line =
right brace = )
tilde = =

4. The sequence "\" is treated as the following:

"
octal escape, it is only necessary to type     a "
them

Heads up, bestie: the copy of this RFC we were given lost a few characters (mostly quote marks and symbols) 😭 so those spots are left exactly as they appear here, and we're not guessing what they were.

The case-mapping software also actuates if you type HELP (upper-case) before logging in, in response to the system's "login incorrect" message. In that case, the normal login-format information gets printed out. That's the same info you'd get from lower-case help, so it's lowkey the same vibe. 🌸

Also, the escape sequences are the same as the existing Multics conventions for direct-dialled Model 33/35 TTYs. On those particular devices, the character is indicated on the key-caps and is input as SHIFT-L. It's iconic when old tech and new tech match up like this! 💀✨

Allocate Handling 🦋

Output to systems that give small allocations has been a problem for a long time, both for the remote user and for the Multics "Network Daemon" process. 😭 The remote user kept getting frequent pauses in the output at their terminal, and the Network Daemon was super inefficient because it kept getting woken up to process the ALL control messages. Not ideal, fr fr.

So to fix it, we added interrupt-time code. It processes the ALLs and outputs the next group of bytes without making the Network Daemon take a wakeup. 🔥 Attendees of the ICCC already saw it in action, and response is way better under the new scheme. Slay. 💅

Also, for the System Programmers responsible for NCPs: some 75% of our control-message processing deals with ALLs. 🫶 Just saying, you might be interested in that one!

    [ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
    [ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the   ]
    [ direction of Alex McKenzie.                      1/97 ]