What you might call REAL Appletalk was indeed dropped from X.4 onwards, and replaced by the 'Appletalk, Jim, but not as we (used to) know it' of Appletalk over TCP/IP - but even then, this change applies only to file sharing. X.4- X.5 have kept the real thing for printing over Appletalk to (PostScript) Appletalk printers; no IP needed there, and they will print even to a localtalk printer if there is an Appletalk Router of some kind present (even Laserwriter Bridge should work for these purposes).
It's a shame the old protocol was dropped on the sharing side, so that a localtalk machine like a CII, which can see a X.4+ machine (when the network has an Appletalk Router, at any rate), cannot any longer connect to it. What would it have taken to keep the old standards in the system, after all, given that they were already there? Ho hum.
The next question is when even this MacOS8-era form of Appletalk will be dropped, along with support for the old LaserWriter printers and such. One day, comrades, this will happen.
It's a shame the old protocol was dropped on the sharing side, so that a localtalk machine like a CII, which can see a X.4+ machine (when the network has an Appletalk Router, at any rate), cannot any longer connect to it. What would it have taken to keep the old standards in the system, after all, given that they were already there? Ho hum.
The next question is when even this MacOS8-era form of Appletalk will be dropped, along with support for the old LaserWriter printers and such. One day, comrades, this will happen.