science

John Romkey

John Romkey is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Romkey rather than just read about it. In short: John Romkey is an American computer scientist who along with Donald W. Gillies co-developed MIT PC/IP, the first TCP/IP stack in the industry for MS-DOS on the IBM PC in 1983 while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Key takeaways

John Romkey belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Romkey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Romkey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Romkey is an American computer scientist who along with Donald W. Gillies co-developed MIT PC/IP, the first TCP/IP stack in the industry for MS-DOS on the IBM PC in 1983 while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1986, Romkey founded FTP Software, a commercial TCP/IP stack provider. Romkey authored the first network analyzer, Netwatch, predating the Network General Sniffer. He served on the IAB. With Simon Hackett, Romkey connected the first appliance (a toaster) to the Internet in 1990. Romkey is currently one of the owners of Blue Forest Research, a consulting company. FTP Software provided commercial third-party TCP/IP packages for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. With the advent of Microsoft's own free TCP/IP stack, codenamed "Wolverine" and first introduced as an optional extra for Windows for Workgroups 3.11, FTP Software was driven out of business, along with all the other commercial providers of TCP/IP stacks.

Publications McCahill, M.; Romkey, J.; Schwartz, M.; Sollins, K.; Verschuren, T.; Weider, C. (November 1995). Report of the IAB Workshop on Internet Information Infrastructure, October 12–14, 1994. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC1862. RFC 1862. Retrieved 2020-11-21. Romkey, J. (June 1988). A nonstandard for transmission of IP datagrams over serial lines: SLIP. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC1055. RFC 1055. Retrieved 2020-11-21.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Romkey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Romkey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Romkey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Romkey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Romkey

In research: John Romkey appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Romkey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Romkey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American internet activists, History of the Internet, Internet protocols, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Romkey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Romkey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Romkey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Romkey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Romkey in simple terms?

Why does John Romkey matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Romkey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Romkey.