hoffmann@mit.edu (Ron M. Hoffmann) (03/07/90)
Announcing TechMail, an electronic mail system for the Macintosh.
You can obtain TechMail via anonymous ftp over the Internet from
net-dist.mit.edu (18.72.0.3). The distribution is located in the
directory /pub/TechMail.
TechMail lets you:
o Create, send, and receive e-mail from your Macintosh using
familiar Macintosh tools
o Exchange e-mail with other e-mail users both locally and
on the Internet, BITNET, and other connected networks
o Store e-mail in "boxes" you create and organize on your
hard disk
o Printe e-mail messages on your local printer
o Send e-mail that includes files (ASCII text-only) created
in your favorite word processor
o Create your own e-mail address and mailing lists
o Use public mailing lists
TechMail is a product of MIT Information Systems.
Follows is a copy of the A-Readme file which describes the parts of
the distribution and system requirements.
X---------------------X
This directory contains the V 1.0 distribution of TechMail for the
Macintosh. TechMail is an electronic mail program which allows
Macintosh users to send and receive Internet mail messages amongst
themselves and any other host which can be reached via the Internet.
TechMail makes use of a post office / SMTP server on the network. See
below for more information about this.
TechMail is copyright 1990 by MIT. It can be freely copied for
non-commercial distribution. Check the copyright notice in the
documentation for limitations.
While we are not releasing the source for TechMail at the present
time, we will be doing so in the future, probably in fall 1990.
Please don't ask us about source; we'll announce it's availability in
the various mailing lists and newsgroups when the time comes.
Apple Computer's MacTCP must be installed on each Macintosh that runs
TechMail. You must get this directly from Apple's APDA.
=====================System Requirments==========================
TechMail has been tested on Macintosh Plus and later computers. It
requires a connection to an IP network in one of two fashions: via
Appletalk and an Appletalk to ethernet gateway (like Kinetics KFPS-4
or Cayman Gatorbox) or an ethernet card (in the case of the NU-bus
machines). We have NOT tested TechMail with third-party ethernet
cards designed for SEs, nor have we tried using it with SCSI ethernet
adaptors. A hard disk is strongly recommended as users' mail is
downloaded and stored on their Macintosh.
Since TechMail uses Apple's MacTCP network product, version 6.0.3 or
later of the Macintosh System is required.
==========================TechMail===============================
TechMail is available here in Binhex 4.0 format.
-r--r--r-- 1 root 175694 Mar 1 17:22 TechMail-1.0.Hqx
========================Documentation============================
There are three documents, two of them done in Microsoft Word 4.0.
They are targeted at MIT users but you may be able to use large
portions of these in preparing local documentation. Be sure to
preserve the MIT copyright notice if you do reproduce portions of
these manuals. Please note that the support phone numbers and email
addresses listed in the documentation are for MIT users only.
-r--r--r-- 1 root 50698 Mar 1 17:03 GSguide.Hqx
-r--r--r-- 1 root 358648 Mar 1 17:04 UserGuide.Hqx
-r--r--r-- 1 root 39876 Mar 1 17:22 Help.Hqx
The first is a short document, done in Word, to get people started and
for our MIT users, describes how to register for an account on the
centrally-supported post office server.
The second (also in Word) is a full-blown user manual with full
descriptions of all commands and depictions of screens from the
program.
The last one is a (text) file which should be installed with TechMail
on each Macintosh. It contains abbreviated instructions for various
commands and can be reached from within TechMail by selecting Help
from the File menu.
Two more documentation files are available:
-r--r--r-- 1 root 1160836 Mar 1 20:11 UserGuide.PS
-r--r--r-- 1 root 123999 Mar 1 18:59 GSguide.PS
These are PostScript versions of the MS Word files. They are not
exact versions as some of the fonts used on a LaserWriter don't map to
generic PostScript printers. They do print on DEC printers and are
useful if you don't have MS Word.
======================Post Office Server=========================
The post office server is implemented using the programs included in
the Rand MH 6.6 distribution. MH is in the public domain and can be
obtained over the Internet via anonymous FTP. See the file called
GettingMH in this directory for more details.
There is also a sendmail.cf file for Sendmail V 5.61 provided here on
an as-is basis. It is the one we use on our post office / SMTP
server, with our site-specific information removed. In particular,
make sure you fill in your local information for the following macros:
Cw, DI, DD, DC, DP.
===========================Support===============================
TechMail and the other items in this distribution are provided as-is
and without any support from MIT. We have created a mailing list for
discussion about TechMail, called info-techmail@MIT.EDU . You can
have yourself added to the list by sending mail to
info-techmail-request@MIT.EDU .
We have very little people-power to devote to answering questions and
comments about TechMail so please don't be offended if you don't get a
response to your questions from the developers. This list is yours as
(hopefully) TechMail users and we will step in when we can to field
questions and respond to comments.
MIT Network Services
5 March, 1990