May I humbly suggest an examination of dmr's streams from 8th Edition UNIX
(not to be confused with the USG/USL STREAMS crapola that they claimed was
their networking API). Simple drivers, stackable modules, perfect for
anything that wants to play with a stream of data, e.g. PPP, HDLC, UUCP,
PTY, the various TTY line disciplines (the complexity of line disciplines
was the impetus for streams in the first place...).

This is a rather more radical change than Bill had in mind, but I think,
carefully done, it would have benefits far beyond this particular problem.

	Erik