Project Athena at MIT is one of the best-known models of next-generation distributed computing in an academic environment. One of its spinoffs, the X Window System, has had a major impact on the way people are using computers. The success of X tends to overshadow other aspects of the project. Athena involves much more than just X. For those who want to know what it involves, how it started, and how it is evolving, here is a concise yet complete account of the development of Project Athena from its start up to the present. The book is divided into four major parts. Each part looks at the project from a particular point of view. These views are development, pedagogy, technology, and administration.
Part 1 describes how the project has evolved over the years. Particularly interesting is what the ideas behind the project were, what strategies and goals were formulated, and what strategic decisions were made. The author also describes how this ambitious project could take off through the sponsorship of two large competing companies, DEC and IBM.
Part 2 covers the way the project influenced the quality of education at MIT. First it looks at Athena as an instructional system. For use as a general instructional system, the Personal Productivity Software (Scribe, Emacs, MatLab, Hoops, LaTEX, 20/20, Macsyma, NAG, and RS/1) plays a major role. More specialized courseware was also developed by various departments. Some of the more successful instructional projects are looked at in more detail. The reaction of faculty to Athena is also described.
Part 3 gives a detailed technical description of the architecture. It starts with an overview of distributed systems and compares the Athena approach with other existing architectures, including Amoeba, Andrew, Mach, and Sprite. Next, a more detailed discussion of the Athena tools and services is given, including the X Window System, the Kerberos authentication server, and the Hesiod name server. This part concludes with a discussion of the Athena Multimedia Workstation Project.
The fourth and final part covers the impact of the project on the administration. The effect of placing workstations in dormitories is described, as is the financial and organizational structure of the project. This section concludes with an assessment of what has been achieved as well as a look into the future.
The book contains an extensive bibliography and an adequate index. The typography is well done, with few errors. I can recommend this book to everybody with an interest in educational computing and in large-scale distributed computing systems. It is particularly interesting for those involved in the administration and planning of such systems.
