3 ms·

> AppleTalk is a discontinued proprietary suite of networking protocols developed by Apple Computer for their Macintosh computers. Wut? Can you explain for dum

> AppleTalk is a discontinued proprietary suite of networking protocols developed by Apple Computer for their Macintosh computers. Wut? Can you explain for dumb people?

gregsadetsky 20d ago
AppleTalk is a protocol that was used on classic/vintage Macs (think: early/late 1980s, 1990s) to create local networks. The wikipedia page [0] has a good historical overview, including the parallel rise of ethernet / tcp/ip (which won). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk
- rrr_oh_man 20d ago
  How does TailTalk relate to this? Does it re-implement it?
  - gregsadetsky 20d ago
    Yep, looks like it - it's a from-scratch reimplementation that you can use in your own software to talk to devices on AppleTalk networks.
  - wpm 20d ago
    Using TailTalk on my modern Mac, I can expose a file share accessible to my Macintosh Plus, which has a simulated SCSI Ethernet adapter bridged to a Pi Pico 2W's wireless connection via a BlueSCSI.
nxobject 20d ago
If this comparison helps: before deprecation, the last practical use for AppleTalk was file sharing, e.g. legacy Time Machine. Apple dropped it, and encourages SMB and WebDAV.
- arm 20d ago
  More information on that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Filing_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Filing_Protocol
- rrr_oh_man 19d ago
  Thank you, highly appreciated! Now everything makes sense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk was very thorough on the protocol's history, but I was really puzzled by the purpose and why somebody would re-implement a discontinued protocol.
eschaton 19d ago
If you’re reading “Hacker” “News” either this sequence of English words should make sense to you or you should be competent enough to use a search engine and/or Wikipedia to easily learn what they mean.

> AppleTalk is a discontinued proprietary suite of networking protocols developed by Apple Computer for their Macintosh computers. Wut? Can you explain for dumb people?

gregsadetsky 20d ago

AppleTalk is a protocol that was used on classic/vintage Macs (think: early/late 1980s, 1990s) to create local networks. The wikipedia page [0] has a good historical overview, including the parallel rise of ethernet / tcp/ip (which won). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk

rrr_oh_man 20d ago
How does TailTalk relate to this? Does it re-implement it?
- gregsadetsky 20d ago
  Yep, looks like it - it's a from-scratch reimplementation that you can use in your own software to talk to devices on AppleTalk networks.
- wpm 20d ago
  Using TailTalk on my modern Mac, I can expose a file share accessible to my Macintosh Plus, which has a simulated SCSI Ethernet adapter bridged to a Pi Pico 2W's wireless connection via a BlueSCSI.

nxobject 20d ago

If this comparison helps: before deprecation, the last practical use for AppleTalk was file sharing, e.g. legacy Time Machine. Apple dropped it, and encourages SMB and WebDAV.

arm 20d ago
More information on that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Filing_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Filing_Protocol
rrr_oh_man 19d ago
Thank you, highly appreciated! Now everything makes sense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleTalk was very thorough on the protocol's history, but I was really puzzled by the purpose and why somebody would re-implement a discontinued protocol.

eschaton 19d ago

If you’re reading “Hacker” “News” either this sequence of English words should make sense to you or you should be competent enough to use a search engine and/or Wikipedia to easily learn what they mean.