Computer Networks, 5th Edition

Foreword to the First Edition

David D. Clark

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The term spaghetti code is universally understood as an insult. All good computer scientists worship the god of modularity, since modularity brings many benefits, including the all-powerful benefit of not having to understand all parts of a problem at the same time in order to solve it. Modularity thus plays a role in presenting ideas in a book, as well as in writing code. If a book's material is organized effectively—modularly—the reader can start at the beginning and actually make it to the end.

The field of network protocols is perhaps unique in that the “proper” modularity has been handed down to us in the form of an international standard: the seven-layer ...