Ethernet names...

[Eric Smith]

On Thu, Oct 4, 2018 at 1:55 PM Bill Degnan <billdegnan at gmail.com> wrote:

> I must have misrepresented this then, the book does claim Aloha Net to be
> just a working name in the very beginning.  When it got to the beta testing
> phase it was already called Ethernet
>

After you referenced _Where Wizards Stay Up Late_, I reread the relevant
portions, and I don't think you misrepresented what the book said. I think
the account given in the book may be a bit confused on this point. For
example, on page 239:

Metcalfe and Lampson, along with Xerox researchers David Boogs and Chuck
Thacker, built their first Alto Aloha system in Bob Taylor's lab at Xerox
PARC. To their great delight, it worked. In May 1973 Metcalfe suggested a
name, [...]

My interpretation of that would be that they built it, had something
basically working, were calling it Alto Aloha, and then later Metcalfe
named in Ethernet. That sequence of events is contradicted by Pelkey, and
my guess is that Pelkey is more authoritative on this point. Pelkey
describes the name change from Alto Aloha to Ether as happening in May 1973
in agreement with WWSUL, except that in the Pelkey account the Alto network
wasn't designed and built until June, _after_ the name change.

However, I still think that WWSUL is an excellent book, well worth reading.

Eric