| Basic Info | |
|---|---|
| Media Type | application |
| subtype | atomicmail |
| Registered? | Yes |
| See also | Borenstein |
| Extensions | |
Tags: (none)
File Formats: (none)
MIME type name: application MIME subtype name: atomicmail Required parameters: none Optional parameters: none Encoding considerations: readable ascii, so quoted-printable is preferred if any encoding is needed, e.g. for long lines. Security considerations: ATOMICMAIL is a language for secure and portable interactive messaging. Security was the major focus of the language design. The language is believed to be the first general-purpose active messaging language without any serious security problems, but no formal proof exists. Specific ATOMICMAIL interpreters are of course subject to bugs, which could include security holes. Users are cautioned to be very selective in their choice of interpreters for the ATOMICMAIL language, and in particular should not accept or install ATOMICMAIL interpreters from an untrusted source. Give a safe ATOMICMAIL implementation, it is safe to receive ATOMICMAIL programs in the mail even from untrusted sources. Published specification: ATOICMAIL Language Reference Manual, by N. S. Borenstein, Bellcore Technical Memorandum TM ARH-018429 Person & email address to contact for further information: Nathaniel Borenstein <[email protected]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From [email protected] Mon Jul 26 17:37:34 1993 Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1993 11:20:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Nathaniel Borenstein <[email protected]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Atomicmail ? Cc: [email protected] Here's a standard blurb I offer people as a first cut at ATOMICMAIL information: ---------------- Thanks for your interest in ATOMICMAIL. Here's some information that may be useful to you. ATOMICMAIL was an experimental research project at Bellcore. The ATOMICMAIL programming langauge was a language designed for including programs in electronic mail messages. When you read your mail, the programs would be executed automatically, with a portable user interface and with security features that prevented the abuse of the language for malicious purposes. It has been used experimentally for several years in a user community of several hundred people. The experiment led to some useful insights about incorporating interactive programs into electronic mail, but it was never really designed for widespread use or standardization. It ignored a few issues that were not germane to the research but are critical for wider use, and it was never approved by Bellcore for public release. The best publication regarding ATOMICMAIL was a paper I presented which is available in the CSCW '92 conference proceedings. (If you want a copy and the proceedings aren't easily available, I can send you the text via email.) At this point, however, ATOMICMAIL is rapidly becoming obsolete in favor of a superior and more open technology, "safe-tcl". This is a language for mail-enabled applications based on the Tcl/Tk language from John Ousterhout at UC Berkeley. We're hoping to have a working implementation of this language freely available by the fall of 1993. Meanwhile, for information (in the form of draft specs) you can get some files via anonymous ftp from thumper.bellcore.com, directory pub/nsb/st, where you'll find 3 files, I think. There's also a mailing list, secure-tcl[-request]@uunet.uu.net, which you might be interested in. Let me know if I can be of further help! -- Nathaniel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~