Dear Colleague,

                        Full Screen Service
                        -------------------
     I should like to thank those of you who replied to my earlier letter
and apologise for missing out the circulation list.  I am enclosing both
the list and a copy of all the replies that I have received to date with 
this letter.

     The situation in the UK Academic Community over the use of full screen
services is as follows:-

     Networked terminals are in very common use in our community, in a
     number of universities the majority of terminals are handled on a
     network, usually based on an X.25 packet switching but also using 
     Cambridge Rings and Ethernets.  In all of these networks Triple X
     (or a similar community variant to cross multiple networks) is used 
     and this obviously can impose a heavy load both on the network and 
     on the host machines when single character remote echoing is used, 
     particularly when screen editors are in use. 

     A few years ago, it was decided to produce a new protocol that could
     be carried transparently over Triple X avoiding the need for single
     character remote echoing.  This protocol has now been produced and
     published as SSMP - Simple Screen Management Protocol and a reference
     model in PASCAL has been produced for common micros while work is 
     under way on a 'portable' host editor.  Copies of the protocol are
     readily available from the Joint Network Team, Rutherford Appleton  
     Lab., Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 OQX.  I am also enclosing
     a brief article on SSMP that was published recently.

     There was obviously some discussion within our community as to whether
     it was appropriate to produce a new protocol at this stage while the 
     work in ISO on VTP is under way. The justification for the production
     of a new protocol is still going to be a number of years before ISO
     produces an appropriate protocol, considering that the current draft 
     of the VTP whose facilities, whilest going further than these offered 
     by Triple X, does not match those which SSMP was designed to fill.

     I would be very pleased to have your comments on the above or on any of
the points raised in the other letter.


                            Yours sincerely,




                             B. A. C. Gilmore