MAIL INFORMATION TO:
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION
LARGE COMPUTER GROUP / SOFTWARE REFERRAL CATALOG
MRO2-2/8D2
1 IRON WAY
MARLBORO, MA 01752
DATE: 5 March, 1985
SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION BY: Mark Crispin (via ARPANET electronic mail)
PACKAGE NAME: MM - A DECSYSTEM-20 Electronic Mailsystem
CONTACT NAME: Mark Crispin
COMPANY NAME: PANDA PROGRAMMING
ADDRESS: 1802 Hackett Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043-4431
PHONE: (415) 968-1052
DEC HARDWARE SUPPORTED: DECSYSTEM-20 (TOPS-20)
APPLICATION AREA: OFFICE AUTOMATION
ABSTRACT:
MM is an electronic mailsystem that runs on the DECSYSTEM-20,
similar in a number of ways to Digital's DECmail/MS-20, which was
derived from an earlier version of MM.
The MM mailsystem consists of a number of components, and is
completely self-contained. MM's components include:
- MM is the program that users run to compose and queue
messages for delivery. It also provides for reading
incoming messages and maintenance of a database of
those messages.
- Send allows TOPS-20 users to have the functionality of
TOPS-10's "SEND" command, with several enhancements
including multi-line sends, redisplay of prior sends,
and reply to most recent send.
- MMailr delivers queued messages to their intended
recipients, including network mail and sends.
- SndSrv delivers local sends.
- MMailbox performs mailbox lookup and allows the system
manager a great deal of flexibility in defining
mailboxes (see below).
- Cafard provides a means of delivering mail via TTY
lines and/or dial-out modems.
- Maiser and DMaser receive incoming messages from the
ARPA Internet and DECnet.
- Also included are several minor components to assist in
mailsystem performance monitoring and debugging.
A unique and powerful feature of the MM mailsystem is the
capability for the system manager to define mailboxes above and beyond
the level of user names. In the MM mailsystem, a mailbox is
implicitly assigned to a user's MAIL.TXT, but can also be an auxillary
file or an indirect file. In addition, by entry of a text line in a
system file (MAIL:MAILING-LISTS.TXT) the system manager can define
mailbox aliases, mail forwardings, and mailing lists.
For example, the following entries in MAILING-LISTS.TXT:
BILL= JONES
SMITH= BOBSMITH@SYSTEM-B
SECRETARIES= SALLY ANN LISA JOE
RESEARCH= @PS:<RS-VP>RES.DIS
REMARKS= *PS:<OPERATOR>REMARKS.TXT
declare BILL as an alias for JONES; SMITH's mail should be forwarded
to BOBSMITH at another computer (SYSTEM-B); SECRETARIES as a mailing
list with members SALLY, ANN, LISA, and JOE; RESEARCH going to the
list of mailboxes found in PS:<RS-VP>RES.DIS, and mail to REMARKS
being appended to the file PS:<OPERATOR>REMARKS.TXT.
Sites running a cooperating "Finger" system will find that
they also have the capability of mailing to an individual by
personal name, e.g. "Bill Jones" could be used as an alternative
mailbox for JONES. The Stanford Finger system is included as
part of the MM distribution, although it is not required for the
operation of the mailsystem if mailing by personal names is not
necessary.
MM has the capability to have multiple specifications for
message retrieval, to quickly isolate the message the user wishes
to retrieve. This is especially useful for users who wish to
keep hundreds of back messages online (the user can, of course,
delete and permanently erase old messages at any time at the
user's option). For example, suppose a corporate officer wishes
to locate a message sent sometime in May or June 1983 from user
JONES regarding the Paris subsidiary. Quite some time could be
spent wading through hundreds of old messages. Or, the officer
could invoke MM and give the command:
READ SINCE 1-MAY-83 BEFORE 30-JUN-83 FROM "JONES" TEXT "Paris subsidiary"
As distributed, MMailr supports local delivery and network
delivery to the ARPA Internet, DECnet, Chaosnet, and Pup
Ethernet. It also supports mail relaying between these networks.
The network support has been implemented in a modular fashion so
it is quite feasible for a site to add support for its own
special network configuration.
Some version or other of MM is in use on a large number of
TOPS-20 sites. Stanford University is a good example; at
Stanford MM supports a user community of several thousand users
on 11 DECSYSTEM-20's connected via Pup Ethernet and ARPA
Internet. Because of the operating system-independent protocols
nature of the protocols used with Pup Ethernet and Internet,
messages composed by the MM mailsystem can be delivered to (and
received by) other operating systems. Stanford's environment
includes a large number of VAX systems running both VMS and Unix;
electronic mail between the VAX and DECSYSTEM-20 systems is fully
supported and hundreds of pieces of electronic mail are
transacted daily between these various systems.
MM's DECnet support uses the ARPA Internet "SMTP" protocol.
SOURCE LANGUAGE(S): MACRO-20
OTHER AREAS OF USAGE: Academic, management, etc.
DATE OF FIRST RELEASE: 1978
DATE OF LAST REVISION: March 1986
MAJOR ENHANCEMENTS BEING PLANNED IN THE NEAR FUTURE:
Use of TOPS-20 extended addressing
Reimplementation in a high-level language for portability
TOTAL NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS (ALL HARDWARE): Greater than 100
NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS ON DECSYSTEM-20s: Greater than 100
DEC-10/20 INSTALLATIONS:
Most ARPA Internet sites
Several universities
Several commercial sites
LICENSE OR RENTAL FEE (SPECIFY PERIOD AND INCLUDE DISCOUNTS IF ANY):
$50 in US funds for shipping and media costs.
MAINTENANCE FEE(S):
Maintenance agreements are available by special
arrangement with PANDA PROGRAMMING. Fees are established
on a case-by-case basis depending upon the level of
support desired.
SERVICES INCLUDED IN PRICE:
None. Maintenance available separately. Bug reports
accepted from any site but no guarantee is made that any
action is taken unless a maintenance agreement exists.
TRAINING AVAILABLE:
Available by special arrangement with PANDA PROGRAMMING.
