Ream (e-mail client)
Encyclopedia
Ream is a textual, screen-based email client developed by Paul Dourish
at the Center for Speech Technology Research at the University of Edinburgh
. Initially developed in 1986, it was one of the standard email clients for the university and was in use throughout the campus for around ten years. Freely available on the internet, it was ported to a large number of UNIX-based operating systems including OSF/1, BSD 2.10, Unicos
, Ultrix
, HP-UX
, and Dynix
, and was made compatible with email infrastructures based on sendmail
, MMDF
, and PP
.
Its more advanced features include an automatic mechanism for determining where messages should be saved (making it extremely fast to process incoming messages), a zero-cost-override input feature derived from Interlisp
, stackable message selection based on regular expressions, a fast regular expression engine with a tiny footprint, and tight integration with external text editors, allowing users to rely on their favourite tools for composing and editing text.
Ream was developed at around the same time as Elm, and is similar in its broad interface approach.
Ream was designed in an era of multi-user minicomputer and mainframe systems, before protocols such as POP
and IMAP were widely deployed. Similarly, it predated widespread use of MIME
encoding, necessary to support file attachments. Lack of support for these features caused use of ream to dwindle in the late 1990s.
Paul Dourish
Paul Dourish is a computer scientist best known for his work at the intersection of computer science and social science. He is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he joined the faculty in 2000.- Life and Work :...
at the Center for Speech Technology Research at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
. Initially developed in 1986, it was one of the standard email clients for the university and was in use throughout the campus for around ten years. Freely available on the internet, it was ported to a large number of UNIX-based operating systems including OSF/1, BSD 2.10, Unicos
Unicos
UNICOS is the name of a range of Unix-like operating system variants developed by Cray for its supercomputers. UNICOS is the successor of the Cray Operating System . It provides network clustering and source code compatibility layers for some other Unixes. UNICOS was originally introduced in 1985...
, Ultrix
Ultrix
Ultrix was the brand name of Digital Equipment Corporation's native Unix systems. While ultrix is the Latin word for avenger, the name was chosen solely for its sound.-History:...
, HP-UX
HP-UX
HP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984...
, and Dynix
Dynix
Dynix is an operating system developed by Sequent. It is a flavor of Unix based on BSD. DYNIX was replaced by DYNIX/ptx, which was based on the System V version of UNIX produced by AT&T....
, and was made compatible with email infrastructures based on sendmail
Sendmail
Sendmail is a general purpose internetwork email routing facility that supports many kinds of mail-transfer and -delivery methods, including the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol used for email transport over the Internet....
, MMDF
MMDF
MMDF, the Multichannel Memorandum Distribution Facility, is a message transfer agent , a computer program designed to transmit email.-History:...
, and PP
PP
PP, pp, Pp, or Pp may refer to:- Places :* Perry Park, any of several places in Australia, England, or the United States* Phi Phi Islands, in Thailand* Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia...
.
Its more advanced features include an automatic mechanism for determining where messages should be saved (making it extremely fast to process incoming messages), a zero-cost-override input feature derived from Interlisp
Interlisp
Interlisp was a programming environment built around a version of the Lisp programming language. Interlisp development began in 1967 at Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts as BBN LISP, which ran on PDP-10 machines running the TENEX operating system...
, stackable message selection based on regular expressions, a fast regular expression engine with a tiny footprint, and tight integration with external text editors, allowing users to rely on their favourite tools for composing and editing text.
Ream was developed at around the same time as Elm, and is similar in its broad interface approach.
Ream was designed in an era of multi-user minicomputer and mainframe systems, before protocols such as POP
Post Office Protocol
In computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern...
and IMAP were widely deployed. Similarly, it predated widespread use of MIME
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...
encoding, necessary to support file attachments. Lack of support for these features caused use of ream to dwindle in the late 1990s.