Ray Tomlinson & the history of email in his own words

Ray Tomlinson passed away this weekend, truly an internet pioneer and one that has more claim to the "inventor of email" moniker than any other. #RIP

It is the third legendary MIT-alumni Internet founding father to pass this year, Marvin Minsky died in January, and Wesley A. Clark in February.

Over at bbn.com Ray Tomlinson, shares the story of 'inventing' email in his own words:

"During the summer and autumn of 1971, I was part of a small group of programmers who were developing a time-sharing system called TENEX that ran on Digital PDP-10 computers. We were supporting a larger group working on natural language. Earlier, I had worked on the Network Control Protocol (NCP) for TENEX and network programs such as an experimental file transfer program called CPYNET.

I was making improvements to the local inter-user mail program called SNDMSG. Single-computer electronic mail had existed since at least the early 1960's and http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html

In recognition of all his work, and his unique contribution to email, today Deliverability.Buzz has a special commemorative edition recognizing Rays achievements.