Implementation detail. The algorithm used in 1991 could have been implemented over TCP/IP, except for initial discovery, which is not hard to solve.
My point was in response to the question in this posting that seemed to imply that decentralized chat might not be possible. There's no question it's possible, as demonstrated in my system long ago.
That's not to take away from the value of Williams' implementation, which is built on today's infrastructure and is probably very useful. And anyway, I love decentralized systems of all flavors...
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Implementation detail. The algorithm used in 1991 could have been implemented over TCP/IP, except for initial discovery, which is not hard to solve. My point was in response to the question in this posting that seemed to imply that decentralized chat might not be possible. There's no question it's possible, as demonstrated in my system long ago. That's not to take away from the value of Williams' implementation, which is built on today's infrastructure and is probably very useful. And anyway, I love decentralized systems of all flavors...
Online copy of the article: http://www.mactech.com/articles/develop/issue_05/6-30_Chesley_Docv9_CHG.html.
Reference: Harry R. Chesley, "Asynchronous Background Networking on the Macintosh," Develop 5, Winter 1991. It was called Rumor Monger.