A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Names, addresses, and routes serve distinct functions in navigation and identification.
- In plain terms
- Names tell you what, addresses tell you where, routes tell you how.
- What can you take from it?
- Separate identity from location and method.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why separate name from address?
- What changes more often, name or route?
Another view
In dynamic systems, addresses and routes often change, blurring these distinctions.
More from Jon Postel
In general, an implementation must be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior.
Permalink to quote #2 TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.
Permalink to quote #3 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 …
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition…
Bertrand RussellBertrand Russell quote #5 The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or thing, having an independent existence of its own; and if no …
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill quote #6 Of course I'm inconsistent! Only logicians and cretins are consistent!
Tom RobbinsTom Robbins quote #6