Jon Postel Quotes

American computer scientist (1943–1998)

Jonathan Bruce Postel (August 6, 1943 – October 16, 1998) was an American computer scientist. He was the first and longest-serving editor of the ARPANET (later Internet) RFC document series, and wrote or edited many of protocol standards still used in the Internet today.

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Alternative Names: Jonathan B. Postel • Jonathan Postel • Jonathan Bruce Postel

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In general, an implementation must be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior.

A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there.

I think they called me the closest thing to a God of the Internet. But at the end, that article wasn’t very complimentary, because the author suggested that I wasn’t doing a very good job, and that I ought to be replaced by a "professional." Of course, there isn’t any "God of the Internet." The Internet works because a lot of people cooperate to do things together.

Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others

TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.

Jon Postel Quotes

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