Comment by p_l
2 years ago
The difference between QUIC and TCP is the original sin of TCP (and its predecessor) - that of emulating an async serial port connection, with no visible messaging layer.
It meant that you could use a physical teletypewriter to connect to services (simplified description - slap a modem on a serial port, dial into a TIP, write host address and port number, voila), but it also means that TCP has no idea of message boundaries, and while you can push some of that knowledge now the early software didn't.
In comparison, QUIC and many other non-TCP protocols (SCTP, TP4) explicitly provide for messaging boundaries - your interface to the system isn't based on emulated serial ports but on messages that might at most get reassembled.
It's kind of incredible to think how many things in computers and electronics turn out to just be a serial port.
One day, some future engineer is going to ask why their warp core diagnostic port runs at 9600 8n1.
Because of Roman chariot horses ass width or something like that XD