[ih] SMTP History

[Steve Crocker]

Perfectly possible.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 28, 2022, at 11:33 PM, John Day <jeanjour at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 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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>>>>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
>>>>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>>>> 
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>