X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cw-email
Date:         Fri, 4 Sep 1992 17:34:43 CDT
              <CW-EMAIL@TECMTYVM.BITNET>
From:         David E Boyes <dboyes@IS.RICE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: MIME (E-mail and calendaring recommendations)
              92 5:23 pm

Well, since I've gotten 5 replies in the last hour about my
proposal, this message and the next message I send will contain
the proposal and the last draft of the Chronos spec that went to
the IETF. I will also contact the IETF applications group chair
and see about getting the working group reinstated, since there
seems to be a concrete interest in making this happen.

The file is marked up with LaTeX command words; just strip out
anything starting with a backslash (\) and curly braces if you
don't have LaTeX. This version of the proposal does not discuss
the use of STDWIN as a common windowing environment, as I hadn't
thought of using it until very recently.

David Boyes
dboyes@rice.edu


;; -- begin included file: calendar.tex
\documentstyle{article}
\title{PHAETON \\
A Distributed Multi-platform Scheduling System}
\author{D. Boyes \\
Rice University}
\date{\today}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section{Introduction}

A number of effective calendar and scheduling systems exist in
several environments, however no currently available system
permits a widely distributed user community the freedom to move
between workstations, larger host-based systems, and desktop
personal computers while retaining the global view of a scheduled
resource such as a conference room or a personal appointment
schedule. These commercially available systems are constrained by
dependence on a particular hardware and networking architecture
(PROFS\footnote{PROFS is a registered trademark of International
Business Machines} or Sun's CM\footnote{CM and Openlook are
registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems}), or a conceptual
failure to track the migration of many formerly host-oriented
users to programmable workstations connected to local and
wide-area networks.

A successful scheduling system in this type of enviroment must
maintain a global view of time as a scheduled resource,
potentially replicating the information in multiple environments
with periodic synchronization to ensure a consistent response to
a query from a client program. The server interface must be
flexible enough to permit a client running on a desktop platform
to interoperate with one or more calendar servers, and permit
multiple servers to pass information between themselves in a
reasonably secure manner to preserve personal and confidential
information stored within the calendar server.

The user's interaction with the scheduling system should take the
form of a client program interacting with a server. This approach
permits the information to be presented to the user in a manner
consistent with the environment the user is currently in, eg. a
Macintosh\footnote{Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer,
Inc.} or OS/2\footnote{OS/2 is a registered trademark of
International Business Machines.} client will be coded to behave
in a manner consistent with other programs running in that environment.

\section{Statement of Work}

PHAETON represents a staged implementation and deployment of a
number of scheduling servers and client programs based on the
Chronos protocol developed by the Chronos Working Group,
published as a draft Internet RFC.\footnote{Draft RFC text is
available from boombox.micro.umn.edu, /pub/chronos/chronos.spec.}
Implementations will include
the two major platforms present at Rice, VM/CMS and a generic
Unix\footnote{Unix is a trademark of AT\&T.} implementation which
should be minimally portable to
other systems supporting a {\sl curses}-compatible screen
management library and 4.3BSD-compatible socket library. The
third stage of the project offers open opportunities for
development of more sophisticated client programs for popular
desktop personal computers and more advanced application-level
interfaces to multi-media electronic mail and CWIS servers.

Deliverables will include:
\begin{itemize}
\item A functional server and client for VM and Unix platforms.

\item Documentation of the server/client interface protocol.

\end{itemize}

\section{Project Scope}

\subsection{Methodology}

Implementation will follow three major functional stages: \\
\begin{enumerate}
\item Implementation of a prototype server written in REXX and
two line-mode clients, one in REXX and the other in Perl to
demonstrate a proof of concept.

\item Implementation of a robust fullscreen Unix client employing the
Unix curses package, the TNT screen control package for CMS, and
modifying xcalentool (a public domain X-based calendar manager)
to consult the PHAETON server. This stage will also involve
implementing the server in C to promote portability.

When a stable implementation is completed, the server and client
code will be released to the Internet and BITnet community for
experimentation and further use.

\item Development of application-level interfaces to scheduler
and continued research into more sophisticated clients for
desktop personal computers. Projected applications include
implementation of a MIME object for sending events to
non-cooperating PHAETON systems (eg, scheduling servers at
different organizations) as part of a multi-media mail message,
or a direct CWIS interface for generation of weekly or daily
events calendars for public spaces such as meeting rooms or
events in the student union or residential colleges.
\end{enumerate}

\section{Requirements}

Implementation will require the following products, resources,
and services: \\

\begin{tabular}{|c|p{3.5in}|}
\hline
Platform & Requirements \\
\hline
VM & server userid (for development), 15-30 3380 cylinders of
disk space, the RXSOCKET and IUCVTRAP modules, C/370 compiler and
library, TCP/IP for VM, possibly CMS PIPES PRPQ. \\
\hline
Unix & 5-10M disk space, 4.3BSD-compatible socket library, ANSI C
compiler, BSD-compatible curses library, Perl, X version 11,
xcalentool sources, RCS. \\
\hline
\end{tabular}

\section{Projected Timetable and Manpower Estimates}
\begin{tabular}{|c|l|p{3.5in}|}
\hline
Phase & Duration & Manpower \\
\hline
1 & 4-5 months & 0.5-0.75 FTE (1 - 1.5 students) \\
2 & addt. 3 - 4 months & 0.7 - 1 FTE (1.5 - 2 students) \\
3 & open & 0.25-0.5 FTE (1 student) \\
\hline
\end{tabular}


\end{document}
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