[ih] SMTP History

[Miles Fidelman]

Emiliano Spinella via Internet-history wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Lately, I have been looking for information regarding the history of SMTP
> but could not find much information.
>
> Basically, I am interested in the initial Email system protocols and how
> SMTP got its final form. I imagine there must have been multiple protocol
> alternatives for Email but somehow SMTP became a standard.
>
> Were there some relevant milestones that helped SMTP to become broadly
> adopted? I imagine there must have been some important institution or set
> of institutions that drove the adoption.
Perhaps you should go through the early RFCs on the subject.  And 
discussion around them.  Lot's of interesting history buried in there.
>
> Also, is there any reason why POP3 and later IMAP were not part of SMTP?
Completely different functionality.  It kind of helps to understand the 
technology.

Miles Fidelman

-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra

Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why.  ... unknown