Subject: talk (old and new)
To: None <netbsd-bugs@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu>
From: Frank van der Linden <vdlinden@fwi.uva.nl>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 01/24/1994 15:50:06
Hi,

The talk default talk protocol in Net/2 is 'ntalk'. However, a lot
of systems still use the old talk protocol. If an old talkdaemon
talks to a NetBSD machine, inetd tries to execute /usr/old/talkd,
but fails, because that one is not included in the distribution.

Maybe the old talk could also be included, using 'otalk' or something.
I don't think that the source of the old talk is included in Net/2.
Which is weird, because I have seen that source code, and there
are only a few differences (mainly in the setup stuff, the initial
amount of data exchanged is somewhat bigger (a structure grew in size)).

The best solution would be to write something that can handle both 
versions. Maybe some heuristic test, using the amount of data
that is read from the control connection. If it equals the size
of the new structure, then the new protocol is used, if not, the old
one. Just trying to think of something, I don't know it is at
all possible (haven't looked closely enough yet).

- Frank

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