[inforoots] [List4guides] IMP history adjunct to Dick's email note

[Michael Hart]

Hi, Eugene!

Long time no see!!!


I remember back in 65,66 and 68,69, and again in 71 getting
messages on Teletype machines that looked exactly like email.

Of course, the ASCII was the same, but only the 71 events
were actually messages that were possibly going on what
eventually became the Internet.

Michael S. Hart
Founder, 1971
Project Gutenb erg
Inventor of eBooks


On Mon, 5 May 2008, Miya, Eugene wrote:

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> 1) My attempt while traveling to respond to Dick G. good note failed due to
> changes in the NASA email system (talk about ironic) and the CHM listserv.
>
> 2) Email was NOT one of the earliest applications on the ARPAnet.  You were
> not on the ARPAnet for email, so it is important to keep this in mind.  FTP
> and telnet were the first apps.  They have changed very little, since they
> started.  Some of the few changes were to accommodate hierarchical file
> systems to "change directory" and other similar directory status commands.
> Email came later but was not available to every one for administrative and
> technical reasons.  It later came what we regard as "the" killer app. The
> IMP allowed diverse vendor hardware; ARPAnet was a somewhat more
> heterogeneous network than would have other been otherwise vendor or
> institutionally possible.  A pretty good reference for the net in that
> period is Katie Hafner's Where Wizards Stay Up Late; watch for her NY Times
> article about the CHM.
>
> 3) The first protocol was NCP, Network Control Protocol/Program.  NCP
> differs quite a bit and had quite a few limitations compared to TCP/IP.  You
> did not have to know about the IMP, your host computer managed the IMP as a
> front-end.  It was packet switched with limited store-and-forward sliding
> windows.
>
> 4) Jake ran the NIC (Network Information Center) at SRI: Jake knew all.
> Very few people knew Jake was female (Elizabeth).  Get to know Jake, she is
> one of the most useful references the CHM has to offer.
>
> 5) 56.6 Kb/s was good.  While experiments in packet voice, crude graphics
> (no color, only calligraphic), and other real time experiments took place in
> the early 1970s, the rest of the net functioned without a lot of knowledge.
> It was FTP, telnet, and email.
>
> 6) You would not believe how hostile some of the ARPAnet's opponents were.
> Not to this day at least.  They still exist, but they are much more quiet.
> I can answer a few more docent level questions, but the real experts are
> still out there (I can point you guys to the still living guys, many in
> Katie's book).
>
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