Introduction to AppleTalk(IM:N) (original) (raw)

Chapter 1 - Introduction to AppleTalk

This chapter provides an overview of the AppleTalk networking system and the AppleTalk Manager. AppleTalk is a communications network system interconnecting personal computer workstations, computers acting as file servers and print servers, printers, and shared modems allowing them to exchange information through a variety of types of communications hardware and software. The AppleTalk Manager consists of a set of programming interfaces to the various components of AppleTalk for applications and processes running on Macintosh computers.

This chapter introduces some of the AppleTalk terminology that is used throughout the rest of this book. Read this chapter if you want to gain an overview of the AppleTalk networking system and its component protocols. You should also read this chapter for suggestions on which AppleTalk protocols to use for various application requirements.

This first section of this chapter, "About Networking on the Macintosh," provides an introduction to AppleTalk networking concepts and terminology, and then it discusses
- the AppleTalk protocols and their functions
- the AppleTalk Manager
- the layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and how the AppleTalk protocol stack relates to this model
The second section of this chapter, "Deciding Which Protocol to Use," discusses
how you can use each of the AppleTalk protocols that has an application program-
ming interface.
The third section of this chapter, "The AppleTalk Pascal Interface," describes the
two modes in which you can execute the routines that make up the interfaces to
the AppleTalk protocols. This information applies to each of the protocols covered individually throughout the chapters of this book. You should read this section
before you use any of the programming interfaces to the AppleTalk protocols. The chapters that make up the rest of this book describe how to use the AppleTalk Manager and the hardware device drivers. Because the AppleTalk network system includes both hardware and software--and because the software includes not only
the AppleTalk Manager but also file servers, print servers, internet routers, drivers for circuit cards, and so forth--the information in this book constitutes only a small part of the body of literature documenting AppleTalk.