An ISP of their own (was RE: [rescue] Being jobless)

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003, Devin L. Ganger wrote:

> Hmm.  I've always detested IOS, really.  I love the idea of a command-line
> configuration language for routers, but the way IOS does it is pretty much
> a textbook example of what *not* to do, in my opinion.

You need to see an Alcatel 7410 (previous known as the Assured Access
X1000).  THAT was, by far, the fugliest CLI I've ever seen.  Imagine the
worst bits of IOS (impossible to predict what -that- part of the CLI
"tree" would call what you're trying to do) mixed with the worst bits of
DCL (everything was either SET or DEFINE or CREATE with no seeming rhyme
or reason).  Add to that, some of the commands would go into a
full-screen curses-like environment.  It even had a built-in text editor
that resembled no other editor I'd ever seen, except for maybe TECO.

After using shit like that and 3com's various interfaces, IOS is a
-joy-.

> IOS is pretty good at what it does, but the command set and the CLI need
> a complete overhaul from the ground up.

Yeah, but then you'd make the glut of paper-CCNAs totally worthless.
Oh, wait... :)

--
Jonathan Patschke   )  "We're Texans.  We figure out ways to do these
Elgin, TX          (    things..."                    --Bill Bradford