[cctalk] Re: DECnet to be dropped from Linux

It depends on whether you want to hook into existing system APIs (such as, in this case, the socket API). And if yes, whether that API is designed to be extensible. For example, in Linux as in most other operating systems, adding services that look like device drivers is easy. In a lot of operating systems, adding services that look like file systems is also doable because that API is designed to be plugged into. But not all OS APIs are that way. Can a Linux loadable module, without help from the core kernel code, define a new socket address family, and tie into the socket API for sockets attached to that family? I don't know. If yes, then indeed doing Linux doesn't require explicit help from the core kernel. But if no, then it does -- or alternatively the DECnet API becomes clunkier. paul