Editing Email (section)

== History ==
{{anchor|Origin}}
{{Main|History of email}}
Computer-based messaging between users of the same system became possible after the advent of [[time-sharing]] in the early 1960s, with a notable implementation by [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]'s [[Compatible Time-Sharing System|CTSS]] project in 1965.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mail-history.html|title=The History of Electronic Mail|author=Tom Van Vleck|access-date=March 23, 2005|archive-date=December 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202025034/http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mail-history.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Most developers of early [[mainframe]]s and [[minicomputer]]s developed similar, but generally incompatible, mail applications. In 1971 the first [[ARPANET]] network mail was sent, introducing the now-familiar address syntax with the '[[At sign|@]]' symbol designating the user's system address.<ref>{{cite web |author=Ray Tomlinson |url=https://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html |title=The First Network Email |publisher=Openmap.bbn.com |access-date=2019-10-05 |archive-date=May 6, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506003539/https://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Over a series of [[Request for Comments|RFCs]], conventions were refined for sending mail messages over the [[File Transfer Protocol]].

Proprietary electronic mail systems soon began to emerge. [[IBM OfficeVision#Earlier PROFS, DISOSS and Office/36|IBM]], [[CompuServe]] and [[Xerox Star|Xerox]] used in-house mail systems in the 1970s; CompuServe sold a commercial intraoffice mail product in 1978 to IBM and to Xerox from 1981.{{refn|group=nb|IBM's system was available on request to customers prior to formal release.}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gardner |first1=P. C. |year=1981 |title=A system for the automated office environment |journal=IBM Systems Journal |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=321–345 |doi=10.1147/sj.203.0321 |issn=0018-8670 |postscript=none}}; {{Cite web |date=2020-08-02 |title=IBM100 - The Networked Business Place |website=[[IBM]] |url=https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/networkbus/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802211021/https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/networkbus/ |archive-date=2020-08-02 |access-date=2020-09-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |author=Connie Winkler |date=October 22, 1979 |title=CompuServe pins hopes on MicroNET, InfoPlex |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ChMAmfS1nEkC&dq=compuserve+Infoplex+1979&pg=PA69 |magazine=[[Computerworld]] |volume=13 |issue=42 |page=69 |postscript=none}}; {{cite magazine |author=Dylan Tweney |date=September 24, 1979 |title=Sept. 24, 1979: First Online Service for Consumers Debuts |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/09/0924compuserve-launches/ |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Ollig |first=Mark |date=October 31, 2011 |title=They could have owned the computer industry |work=Herald Journal |url=http://www.herald-journal.com/archives/2011/columns/mo103111.html |access-date=2021-02-26 |postscript=none |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227062954/http://www.herald-journal.com/archives/2011/columns/mo103111.html |url-status=live }}; {{Cite web |last= |date=15 February 2012 |title=Tech before its time: Xerox's shooting Star computer |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328521-800-tech-before-its-time-xeroxs-shooting-star-computer/ |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US |postscript=none |archive-date=April 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418181102/https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328521-800-tech-before-its-time-xeroxs-shooting-star-computer/ |url-status=live }}; {{Cite web |title=The Xerox Star |url=http://toastytech.com/guis/star.html |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=toastytech.com |archive-date=July 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718030555/http://toastytech.com/guis/star.html |url-status=live }}</ref> DEC's [[ALL-IN-1]] and [[Hewlett-Packard|Hewlett-Packard's]] HPMAIL (later HP DeskManager) were released in 1982; development work on the former began in the late 1970s and the latter became the world's largest selling email system.<ref>{{cite web |date=1998-01-30 |title=ALL-IN-1 |url=https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/Digital/timeline/1982-4.htm |work=DIGITAL Computing Timeline |access-date=April 20, 2022 |archive-date=January 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103002807/http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/Digital/timeline/1982-4.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=HP Computer Museum |url=http://www.hpmuseum.net/divisions.php?did=10 |access-date=November 10, 2016 |archive-date=September 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909011243/http://www.hpmuseum.net/divisions.php?did=10 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Simple Mail Transfer Protocol]] (SMTP) was implemented on the ARPANET in 1983. [[Local area network|LAN]] email systems emerged in the mid-1980s. For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed likely that either a proprietary commercial system or the [[X.400]] email system, part of the [[Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile]] (GOSIP), would predominate. However, once the final restrictions on carrying commercial traffic over the Internet ended in 1995,<ref>[https://merit.edu/research/nsfnet_article.php "Retiring the NSFNET Backbone Service: Chronicling the End of an Era"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101025735/https://merit.edu/research/nsfnet_article.php |date=2016-01-01 }}, Susan R. Harris, Ph.D., and Elise Gerich, ''ConneXions'', Vol. 10, No. 4, April 1996</ref><ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html | title= A Brief History of the Internet | url-status= live | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150811053448/https://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html | archive-date= 2015-08-11 | bibcode= 1999cs........1011L | last1= Leiner | first1= Barry M. | last2= Cerf | first2= Vinton G. | last3= Clark | first3= David D. | last4= Kahn | first4= Robert E. | last5= Kleinrock | first5= Leonard | last6= Lynch | first6= Daniel C. | last7= Postel | first7= Jon | last8= Roberts | first8= Larry G. | last9= Wolf | first9= Stephen | year= 1999 | arxiv= cs/9901011 }}</ref> a combination of factors made the current Internet suite of SMTP, [[POP3]] and [[IMAP]] email protocols the standard (see [[Protocol Wars]]).<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Rutter |first=Dorian |title=From Diversity to Convergence: British Computer Networks and the Internet, 1970-1995 |date=2005 |degree=Computer Science |publisher=The University of Warwick |url=http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1197/1/WRAP_THESIS_Rutter_2005.pdf |access-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-date=October 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1197/1/WRAP_THESIS_Rutter_2005.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Campbell-Kelly |first1=Martin |last2=Garcia-Swartz |first2=Daniel D |date=2013 |title=The History of the Internet: The Missing Narratives |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=867087 |journal=Journal of Information Technology |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=18–33 |doi=10.1057/jit.2013.4 |ssrn=867087 |s2cid=41013 |issn=0268-3962}}</ref>