RE: Protocol Definition

[John Day <[e-mail]>]

What you say is true of "communication or network protocols."

The statement below was written in the context of the wider use of 
the word protocol (and what you would probably find in the 
dictionary) in the fields of biology, chemistry, and diplomacy.

In this case, one could view our use of the term as a specialization 
of the general use.  After all, a network protocol is a distributed 
algorithm.  The communicating peers only make sense together.


At 14:53 +0000 2012/01/10, Yaakov Stein wrote:
><You are also correct that strictly speaking the words "protocol" and
>< "algorithm" are probably the same.
>
>No, they aren't.
>
>In protocols it is essential that there are at least 2 communicating 
>entities running the same protocol (or at least compatible 
>protocols).
>Each side may be running algorithm(s), but the protocol states what 
>I have to do when
>the other side sends (or doesn't send) me a message of a certain type.
>
>Algorithms frequently have inputs, but these need not come from 
>other algorithms,
>and are treated accordingly.
>
>Y(J)S