RFC Reader →

February 23, 2020 • #

This tool lets you plunge back into computing history and read the RFCs published over the years since the early days of the ARPANET. I’ve been reading Where Wizards Stay Up Late, which tells the interesting story behind how RFCs came to be the medium for proposing standards on the internet.

A few notable ones:

  • Steve Crocker’s RFC 1 on IMP software (ARPANET’s “Interface Message Processors”, basically dedicated computers for network communication queueing)
  • Vint Cerf’s RFC 675 on TCP
  • John Melvin and Richard Watson’s RFC 97 on telnet
  • AK Bhushan’s RFC 114 on FTP
  • Intellectual Value — Esther Dyson's newsletter from 1994, on how intellectual property might work in the age of the internet.
  • Why Alto? — Butler Lampson's memo to the Xerox leadership, requesting investment in the Alto computer.
  • Enter Ethernet — Bob Metcalfe's original schematic drawing of the ethernet spec.