The Elements of Networking Style: And Other Essays & Animadversions on the Art of Intercomputer Networking [Paperback]

M. A. Padlipsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

The World's Only Known Constructively Snotty Computer Science Book: historically, its polemics for TCP/IP and against the international standardsmongers' "OSI" helped the Internet happen; currently, its principles of technoaesthetic criticism are still eminently applicable to the States of most (probably all) technical Arts—all this and Cover Cartoons, too . . . but it's not for those who can't deal with real sentences . . .

If, as we should, we let 1,000 flowers bloom,
We let 10,000 weeds bloom as well;
It must be our great task, then,
To distinguish the weeds from the flowers

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

M. A. Padlipsky comes by his interests in technology and aesthetics honestly, having majored in English and Applied Math at MIT. Dropping out of grad school in English, he dropped into programming and onto the research staff at MIT. Getting Multics onto the ARPANET led to becoming an Old Networking Boy, and that led to this book

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Backinprint.Com (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595088791
• ISBN-13: 978-0595088799
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,613,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an indispensable classic, June 12, 2000

By 

P. Salus (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of Networking Style: And Other Essays & Animadversions on the Art of Intercomputer Networking (Paperback)

When ``Elements'' came out in 1985, I loved it. I referred to it as my favourite book critiquing networking in 1995. And I have mourned the fact that Prentice Hall let it go out of print. Padlipsky's essays are pungent and acerbic; he is opinionated and hilarious. If you want to know what's wrong with X.25 or why OSI failed, Padlipsky will let you know. A wonderful book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Book Worth Reading Again, June 12, 2000

By 

Khun Yee Fung (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elements of Networking Style: And Other Essays & Animadversions on the Art of Intercomputer Networking (Paperback)

I bought this book almost 11 years ago. I was on the Internet for about 2 years by that time. I was always intrigued by how the designers of the protocol suite designed the protocols for the Internet. I thought the book would tell me something about that.

Unfortunately, I did not understand most of the book. Not because the book isn't any good, but because I did not know enough to take advantage of the book. Still, I always remembered the author's opposition to X.25 and OSI.

The funny thing is, I went on to program X.25, OSI, and TCP/IP for a large telecom equipment company. I have to admit I totally agreed with the author by the end of my experience in that company.

I picked up the book again yesterday, thinking that maybe I would learn something more this time. Sure enough, every page and every paragraph is such a treat. I did not know it would take me 8 years of being in the networking industry to understand the book fully.

So, I heartily recommend this book to anybody who is even remotely connected to network programming. You don't have to agree with the author. But he does have a few points worth knowing.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fundamental background for networkers, November 20, 2001

By 

Chris A. Cunningham - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of Networking Style: And Other Essays & Animadversions on the Art of Intercomputer Networking (Paperback)

I bought this book in 1985 when I was hip-deep in implementing the very protocols he writes against. It had a major impact on my thinking about protocols for the next 15 years and helped lead me out of the morass. Even when I did work on OSI protocols I was able to use the ideas to, hopefully, write a little cleaner and better than I would have otherwise.

The current architecture of computer internetworking is philosophically based on the ideas he presents. Without these ideas being so widely propagated we would live in a world dominated by X.25, X.400, and large vendors proprietary implementations of politically written "standards".

Thanks to MAP for writing it.