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Inside Macintosh: Open Transport /


Chapter 9 - Introduction to AppleTalk

This chapter provides an overview of the Open Transport implementation of AppleTalk, Apple Computer's proprietary networking technology. AppleTalk is a communications network system that interconnects Macintosh computer workstations, printers, shared modems, and other computers acting as file servers and print servers. AppleTalk allows these devices to exchange information through communications hardware and software.

Open Transport provides networking functions that you can use to send and receive data across a network, and you can choose to take advantage of Open Transport's transport-independent architecture by using these functions without any protocol-specific options. If, however, you want to take advantage of a particular protocol or protocol family, such as AppleTalk, you can choose specific options that are dependent on a protocol and its implementation.

If you want to use AppleTalk, the specific set of Open Transport functions you call depends on the nature of the specific protocol you use--whether it is connectionless or connection-oriented, and transactionless or transaction-
based. For example, you use different functions to send and receive data with a connection-oriented protocol like AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol (ADSP) or Printer Access Protocol (PAP) than with a connectionless protocol like Datagram Delivery Protocol (DDP) or AppleTalk Transaction Protocol (ATP).

Read this chapter if you want an overview of AppleTalk networks and AppleTalk protocols. You can also read this chapter for help in deciding
which AppleTalk protocols to use for your application's requirements.

This chapter introduces

This chapter and the other AppleTalk chapters in this book describe how to use AppleTalk-specific options with the Open Transport networking functions that are appropriate for the AppleTalk protocol you wish to use.

Because an AppleTalk network includes both hardware and software, the information in this book constitutes only a small part of the body of literature documenting AppleTalk. An important resource for any AppleTalk network developer is the book Inside AppleTalk, second edition, which has detailed specifications for each of the AppleTalk protocols.


Chapter Contents
About AppleTalk
AppleTalk Networks and Addresses
Multinodes
Handling Miscellaneous Events
Configuring AppleTalk Protocol Providers
About AppleTalk Protocols Under Open Transport
AppleTalk Addressing and the Name Binding Protocol (NBP)
The AppleTalk Service Provider
Datagram Delivery Protocol (DDP)
AppleTalk Data Stream Protocol (ADSP)
AppleTalk Transaction Protocol (ATP)
Printer Access Protocol (PAP)

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© Apple Computer, Inc.
15 AUG 1996



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