[ih] SMTP History

[vinton cerf]

steve was at arpa 1971-1974 but he focused then on AI.
while at UCLA from 1968?-1971 he was the head of the Network Working Group
and in that role had much to say about where we were headed.

v


On Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 11:08 PM Jack Haverty via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Interesting.   Do you remember... Was Steve an ARPA Program Manager at
> the time?  I.e., was adding mail to FTP an order or a suggestion?   Did
> he say anything about why Mail had to be in FTP? Were there any FTP
> implementations already functional with some form of MAIL command
> implemented that Steve wanted to become ubiquitous?   /Jack
>
> On 3/28/22 14:50, John Day wrote:
> > MAIL and MLFL were added at the last minute of the FTP meeting at BBN in
> March 1973.
> >
> > We were about to wrap up the meeting when Steve Crocker came in and said
> we have to have a Mail in FTP. So we did it.
> >
> > That was the same meeting at which in response to the question what
> happens when one stores a file with a BYTE size of 23 and RETRieves it with
> a BYTE size of 17? Padlipsky said, “Sometimes when changing oranges into
> apples one gets lemons.” And it was immediately decided that was the
> correct response. Good ol’ MAP.  ;-)
> >
> > John
> >
> >> On Mar 28, 2022, at 17:24, Dave Crocker via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> On 3/28/2022 2:07 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
> >>> There are artifacts in the RFCs capturing some of the early work. FTP
> began circa 1971 with RFC172.  At the same time, there was discussion of a
> "Mail Box Protocol" intended to enable functions like remote printing as a
> way of sending something to someone else over the ARPANET.   You just send
> it to their printer.   See RFCs 196, 221.
> >>> At first, FTP added a "MAIL <user>" command, which each machine
> receiving such MAIL could process as it saw fit.  Print it out.
> >>
> >> RFC 354 (July 1972 and edited by Abhay Bhushan) does not contain the
> string 'mail'.
> >>
> >> RFC 475 (March, 1973 and edited by Abhay Bhushan) discusses FTP's MAIL
> and MLFL commands. It is a meeting report discussing agreement to create
> those commands.
> >>
> >> RFC 542 (August 1973 and edited by Nancy Neigus) does not contain the
> string 'mail'.
> >>
> >> RFC 765 (Aug, 1973 and edit by Jon Postel) does. But while is cites a
> mail command, it does not specify it.
> >>
> >>
> >> d/
> >>
> >> --
> >> Dave Crocker
> >> Brandenburg InternetWorking
> >> bbiw.net
> >> --
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> >> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>
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