RFC 166 Data Reconfiguration Service May 1971 The Application of a Term .................... 14 Restrictions and Interpretations of Term Functions .................................. 15 Term and Rule Sequencing ..................... 16 IV. EXAMPLES ....................................... 17 Remarks ........................................ 17 Field Insertion ................................ 17 Deletion ....................................... 17 Variable Length Records ........................ 18 String Length Computation ...................... 18 Transposition .................................. 18 Character Packing and Unpacking ................ 18 I. INTRODUCTION PURPOSE OF THIS RFC The Purpose of this RFC is to specify the Data Reconfiguration Service (DRS.) The DRS experiment involves a software mechanism to reformat Network data streams. The mechanism can be adapted to numerous Network application programs. We hope that the result of the experiment will lead to a future standard service that embodies the principles described in this RFC. MOTIVATION Application programs require specific data I/O formats yet the formats are different from program to program. We take the position that the Network should adapt to the individual program requirements rather than changing each program to comply with a standard. This position doesn't preclude the use of standards that describe the formats of regular message contents; it is merely an interpretation of a standard as being a desirable mode of operation but not a necessary one. In addition to differing program requirements, a format mismatch problem occurs where users wish to employ many different kinds of consoles to attach to a single service program. It is desirable to have the Network adapt to individual console configurations rather than requiring unique software packages for each console transformation. Anderson, et al.