[ih] SMTP History

[John Day]

I was young and impressionable. It was a bit like you happened to be at BBN for something else and dropped in to the meeting for maybe 30 minutes. I definitely remember we hadn’t considered mail before that.

john

> On Mar 28, 2022, at 23:25, Steve Crocker via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> I don’t recall giving instructions about adding mail to ftp.  Could have
> happened, but I don’t recall it.
> 
> Steve
> 
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 11:23 PM vinton cerf via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
>> 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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