Re: [mosh-devel] Naming, was Re: Termius + Mosh

2017-08-08 Thread Andrew Chin
I think that's a good observation.  I think this conflation has also
happened because there are very few compatible clients and servers.
 (Actually, I'm not aware of any other implementation of the mosh-server
component besides mosh).

Would "mosh protocol" be an appropriate compromise between accuracy and
clarity?   Statements like the following would be, I suspect, pretty easily
understood by people looking for remote access clients:

"Run multiple concurrent terminal sessions on any device you own, using the
SSH, Telnet and Mosh protocols"





On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 8:15 PM Jim Cheetham 
wrote:

> Part of the broader miscommunication here (assuming good faith, of course)
> seems to be around the use of protocol names vs product names; using "SSH"
> and "Telnet" to refer to protocols and not products. The protocol name SSP
> isn't well-known, and currently the public recognise only the name of the
> canonical server software, which is Mosh.
>
> In practice, people set up "an SSH server" and don't tend to remember the
> name of the actual server software ... OpenSSH for example, or
> OpenSSH-Portable, which most Linux distributions are actually using :-)
>
> Mosh's own website says "Mosh is a replacement for SSH", which conflates
> the software with the protocol. Perhaps "SSP is a replacement for SSH"? Of
> course, SSP is capable of more than that as far as I can see, SSP isn't
> actually a replacement for SSH, but the Mosh application uses SSP in order
> to replace users of SSH ...
>
> Naming things seems to be one of the hardest things in computer science :-)
> https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html
>
> And "mosh" is such an excellent name :-)
>
> -jim
>
> Excerpts from Keith Winstein's message of August 9, 2017 11:51 am:
> > I'm happy to explain our position further, and maybe you can understand
> why
> > this is important to us. Mosh is a piece of software, like OpenSSH or
> > Chrome. The protocol is called SSP (State Synchronization Protocol). You
> > have told us that your program is not derived from Mosh, so we really
> don't
> > want your company to call it Mosh. It's nothing personal -- but users are
> > better served knowing the difference. We had a bad experience with
> somebody
> > writing what they thought was a compatible implementation, and users
> > getting confused and blaming us. So we don't want users to think they are
> > running Mosh when they are running somebody else's application.
> >
> > We would be fine with you making statements like, "Termius is
> > mosh-compatible" or "Termius has a mosh-compatible client" or even
> "Termius
> > works with Mosh servers." They key thing here is that it's fine for
> Termius
> > to claim mosh-compatibility, or to work *with* Mosh servers. It shouldn't
> > claim to *be* or to include Mosh, because it doesn't.
> >
> > Yes, the text "SSH, Telnet, and Mosh in your pocket" and "... with SSH,
> > Telnet, and Mosh." appears on your current website, https://termius.com.
> > You can visit it yourself to see.
>
> --
> Jim Cheetham, Information Security, University of Otago, Dunedin, N.Z.
> ✉ jim.cheet...@otago.ac.nz☏ +64 3 470 4670 <+64%203-470%204670>☏
> m +64 21 279 4670 <+64%2021%20279%204670>
> ⚷ OpenPGP: B50F BE3B D49B 3A8A 9CC3 8966 9374 82CD C982 0605
> ___
> mosh-devel mailing list
> mosh-devel@mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mosh-devel
>
___
mosh-devel mailing list
mosh-devel@mit.edu
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mosh-devel


[mosh-devel] Naming, was Re: Termius + Mosh

2017-08-08 Thread Jim Cheetham

Part of the broader miscommunication here (assuming good faith, of course) seems to be around the 
use of protocol names vs product names; using "SSH" and "Telnet" to refer to 
protocols and not products. The protocol name SSP isn't well-known, and currently the public 
recognise only the name of the canonical server software, which is Mosh.

In practice, people set up "an SSH server" and don't tend to remember the name 
of the actual server software ... OpenSSH for example, or OpenSSH-Portable, which most 
Linux distributions are actually using :-)

Mosh's own website says "Mosh is a replacement for SSH", which conflates the software 
with the protocol. Perhaps "SSP is a replacement for SSH"? Of course, SSP is capable of 
more than that as far as I can see, SSP isn't actually a replacement for SSH, but the Mosh 
application uses SSP in order to replace users of SSH ...

Naming things seems to be one of the hardest things in computer science :-)
https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html

And "mosh" is such an excellent name :-)

-jim

Excerpts from Keith Winstein's message of August 9, 2017 11:51 am:

I'm happy to explain our position further, and maybe you can understand why
this is important to us. Mosh is a piece of software, like OpenSSH or
Chrome. The protocol is called SSP (State Synchronization Protocol). You
have told us that your program is not derived from Mosh, so we really don't
want your company to call it Mosh. It's nothing personal -- but users are
better served knowing the difference. We had a bad experience with somebody
writing what they thought was a compatible implementation, and users
getting confused and blaming us. So we don't want users to think they are
running Mosh when they are running somebody else's application.

We would be fine with you making statements like, "Termius is
mosh-compatible" or "Termius has a mosh-compatible client" or even "Termius
works with Mosh servers." They key thing here is that it's fine for Termius
to claim mosh-compatibility, or to work *with* Mosh servers. It shouldn't
claim to *be* or to include Mosh, because it doesn't.

Yes, the text "SSH, Telnet, and Mosh in your pocket" and "... with SSH,
Telnet, and Mosh." appears on your current website, https://termius.com.
You can visit it yourself to see.


--
Jim Cheetham, Information Security, University of Otago, Dunedin, N.Z.
✉ jim.cheet...@otago.ac.nz☏ +64 3 470 4670☏ m +64 21 279 4670
⚷ OpenPGP: B50F BE3B D49B 3A8A 9CC3 8966 9374 82CD C982 0605


pgptJJ8O3nmN8.pgp
Description: PGP signature
___
mosh-devel mailing list
mosh-devel@mit.edu
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mosh-devel