From: MIT-CCC!chase@lbl-csam.ARPA Date: Wednesday, 12 March 1986, 00:44-EST Message-ID: <8603120544.AA07954@lbl-csam.ARPA> To: MIGLESIAS%UCIVMS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU, info-vax@sri-kl.arpa Subject: Re: Software Tools Mail CC: SABA%UWALOCKE.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU, access%indiana.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA The Software Tools mail system is available for VAX/VMS and RSX (and would not be difficult to port to UN*X, since the tools are available there). The tools are available from DECUS (see the Cincinnatti VAX SIG tape, and the newest L&T SIG tape). They are also FTP -able from LBL-WS (via the KERMIT account I believe). Some of the Software Tools mail system features: - Complies with the DoD SMTP protocol - It's a store and forward mailer - It has a built in Bulletin Board system - It's in the Public Domain - It's portable - It's modular (easy to add support for other networks) - It supports DECnet and TCP/IP with the release The tools are also available from STUG on the new VAX/VMS V4.x tools tape. This tape has just been released to support VMS V4.x and earlier systems. STUG 140 Center Street El Segundo, CA 90245 Date: Thursday, 13 March 1986, 06:16-EST From: Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA, Tommy_Ericson_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Sender: Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Reply-to: PortaCOM_Support%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA To: info-vax Subject: Subject: PortaCOM computer conferencing system now ready for VAX/VMS Message-ID: <156243@QZCOM> +-------------------------------------------------------------+ ! PortaCOM computer conferencing system now ready for VAX/VMS ! +-------------------------------------------------------------+ PortaCOM is an electronic mail and conferencing system. This means that in addition to the facilities of a good electronic mail system, PortaCOM also has facilities to support group communication through computer conferences. PortaCOM provides facilities for structuring the data base of users, user groups and messages. These facilities can be used as a tool-box building information structures to map existing organizational and dynamic (e.g. project groups) structures. Users of PortaCOM normally read all new messages in one conference at the same time. They decide themselves in which order to read conferences with news, when to join another conference, or to skip part of the discussion in one conference. PortaCOM keeps track of how far users have read in each conference, so that they are helped to find new items only. Old items are however saved in the data base, and can be retrieved at will, and new members of a conference can, if they want, go back and read what was written before they became members of the conference. Conferences can be of several types: Open: Any user can become member of (and withdraw from) an open conference. Suitable for general open forums. Closed: Only the organizer of the conference can add new members. Suitable for working groups, etc. Restricted: Open to selected users or groups of users, closed to the rest. This helps users control information overload: they must not be members of all conferences they are allowed to join. Protected: Information about the existence of a protected conference is hidden from non-members, giving maximum integrity. Writeable: In a writeable conference, all users (not only members) can enter messages. Write- In a write-protected conference, only the organizer can protected: link messages to the conference (but other users can send items to the organizer for publication in the conference). Useful for official announcements, presentations, and other fields where one wants control of what is communicated. The same message can be sent to several conferences and/or users at the same time, without copying of the text of the item in the data base. The item will still not be shown more than once to a user who is a member of several of the conferences to which the item was sent. There is a command to send a reply to the same recipients (conferences and/or users) who got the commented entry, but writers of replies can also modify the list of recipients of the reply as they wish. Links between messages which are comments to each other are stored in the data base, and can be used in retrieval, for example with the command "review recursively all comments" which will find all comments, comments on comments etc. on a given message. Search of message in the data base can also be done on author, recipient, conference, and on words in the subject line or text of the message. Several search conditions can be combined into one search request, e.g. "review last 100 about Ada by Sven Nielsen". There are commands to get a list of all or the most active conferen- ces, of the users, of usage statistics. Search can be done on the data base of user names or conference names. The user interface can be tailored to the user experience, with menus for the beginner and a command driven interface for the experienced user. But also with the menu interface, a user can give any command in the system independent of which menu was last shown. The user interface is available in three languages, English, Swedish, and Finnish, and will be modified for more languages in the future. The most important facilities not yet ready for release is interfaces to X.400 and RFC821/822 mail standards. Development of this is being done now. An RFC821/822 interface is ready in the DEC-10/20 version of PortaCOM, but not yet in the VAX/VMS version. PortaCOM is a portable program, written in Pascal. It has been developed as a joint European project between many countries. Portations have been made, or are under development, for VAX/VMS, Sperry 1100, CDC Cyber/NOS, Siemens BS2000, Burroughs B7800, IBM MVS, IBM VM/CMS and Nord 100. Involved in this work has besides QZ been the Josef Stefan Institute in Yougoslavia, The ENEA software house for the Swedish Defense, Oslo University in Norway, the University of Duesseldorf in Germany, the University of Helsinki in Finland and The C.S.A.T.A. institute in Italy. The Commission of the European Communities has given QZ the responsibility for maintenance and development of PortaCOM in cooperation with the portators in different countries. PortaCOM has already been installed on about 30 computers in 12 different countries. This message is to announce that the VAX/VMS version of PortaCOM is now ready for release. The versions for Sperry 1100 and DEC-10/20 are also ready for release. For further information, write to Electronic mail: PortaCOM_support%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Postal mail: PortaCOM, QZ, Box 27322, S-102 54 STOCKHOLM, Sweden Phone: +46 8 65 45 00 Telex: (Sweden) 10366 - Tommy Ericson, Jacob Palme QZ, Stockholm