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Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1992 09:52:46 +1030
              <CW-EMAIL@TECMTYVM.BITNET>
From:         Dan Shearer <ccdps@LUX.LEVELS.UNISA.EDU.AU>
Subject:      Re: E-mail survey
              Schafer" at Dec 17, 92 03:57:53 pm

> I find it fascinating with all the interest in GUIs and the advances in
> usability that people in the micro world have seen with products like Windows
> and OS/2 interfaces that we're still talking about things like Pine as a
> great leap forward in email for naive users.

And so say all of us, Richard. There are a number of groups doing some very
good work around the place on Internet service provision for micros,
particularly on the Mac but also Windows. As for email, company called ISA
in Canada has some promising products, so promising that U Toronto might soon
be using them for all mail services. At this stage they have some comprehensive
plans and some interesting clients in beta. Following is a release about
their beta email client, but this is almost certainly out of date.

--
 Dan Shearer                            email: Dan.Shearer@UniSA.edu.au
 Information Technology Branch          Phone: +61 8 302 3479
 University of South Australia          Fax  : +61 8 302 3385


I got this blurb from Steve Hole <steve@edm.isac.ca> some time ago:


ISA has developed a new Mail User Agent (MUA) for processing electronic
mail on networks.  It is named "ecsmail".

Ecsmail can function as both a "remote" MUA and a "local" MUA.   While
functioning in remote mode, it will access a remote message store using
standards based mail access protocols.   In local mode, it will access
a local message store using system dependent message store access
routines.

Ecsmail is has been designed and implemented to be as independent as
possible from operating system, display, and network protocols.  We have
achieved this by building driver libraries for the OS and displays, and
using Mark Crispin's c-client drivers for message store access (both
local and remote message stores).

Using this strategy, we are planning to support the following operating
systems, display, and mail protocol combinations:

 OS        - Unix, DOS, OS/2 v2, MacOS, NT
 Displays  - X11 (R4, R5, Openlook, Motif), MS Windows v3, Presentation
             Manager, Mac Finder
 MAP Protocols - IMAP2, P7, PP7

It is our full intention to make this run on as many platforms, with as
many different protocols as possible.

With ecsmail we plan to provide many interesting features, such as:

  * Multi-part, multimedia mail messages:

    - supporting both MIME and X.400 message formats

    - files (e.g. binaries, images, text, voice, application) can be
      attached and sent along with the message.

    - the different parts of the messsage can be extracted
      and displayed (using the necessary application) to the user.

  * Multiple simultaneous folder access and management (drag and drop
    messages or blocks of messages between folders).

  * Hierarchical folder structures.

  * Integration of multicast (mail) and broadcast (NEWS) message stores
    via into a single interface.  NEWS groups appear as a list of
    folders and threading of broadcast messages will be supported.

  * Virtual folders within folders.   Messages can be grouped using any
    combination of message header criteria into a virtual folder.
    Messages in a virtual folder can be listed and manipulated as
    a single object.   This supports threading of messages within
    folders.

  * Privancy Enhanced Mail (PEM).   Support encryption of message parts,
    digital signatures, and digital timestamps.

  * Forms mail.  Messages can be composed inside of a forms interface
    as a special message part.   It will include form design and
    display tools.

  * Draft message support.   Users will be able to create and store
    standard draft messages, and select draft messages from both public
    and private draft message stores.

  * Integration with "mail enabled applications".

  * Personal configuration files.

  * Asynchronous new mail notification.

  * Personal address book lookup and management. Addresses can be loaded
    manually, copied from incoming mail, or copied from an X.500 DUA
    (see next).

  * Integration with X.500 Directory Services.  The user can query local
    and network-wide address information while composing messages.
    Addresses can be copied from the Directory User Agent to the user's
    local address book. This facility will be optionally available for
    those who have the X.500 Directory Service capability.

What Is Available Now
---------------------

A BETA demonstration version of the Microsoft Windows version of ecsmail is
available via anonymous ftp from

  ftp.srv.ualberta.ca

in the directory

  /pub/networking/win/mail/ecs.tar.Z

This version of ecsmail only supports the TCP/IP based mail access and
transport protocols (IMAP2, SMTP), and can deliver MIME format messages.
It provides what we term "basic functionality" - it does the things that
most mailers do.   Features such as the virtual folders, and NEWS
message sources have not been implemented at this time.

We encourage you to get the software and try it out.  This version of
ecs is released for demonstration purposes only - IT IS NOT CURRENTLY IN
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.  As I have mentioned earlier, we are not currently
charging for the product, and are in the process of evaluating different
forms of funding for the software.

There are some restrictions on what you can do with the software at this
time.   The mailer is designed to support several different TCP/IP
stacks through the use of Windows DLLs.   Currently we support the
following TCP/IP stacks:

  * Beame and Whiteside - BWTCP 2.x
  * Sun Microsystems - PCNFS 4.x
  * DEC Pathworks v

We are currently working on providing:

  * Microsoft WinSock DLL compliance
  * FTP Software - PCTCP 2.04

If you are interested in supporting another TCP/IP stack, then provide
us with a copy of the stack and development kit - it must have a sockets
API - and we'll try to provide a DLL interface for it.

How will we fund ecsmail?
---------------------

There are two funding methods for ecsmail - maintenance contracts and
development contracts.

Maintenance contracts are signed with organizations that want support
and software maintenance on the ecsmail software.   This will include
free software upgrades and immediate response to software problems.

The cost of the maintenance is designed to be far less than
purchase->upgrade cost of conventional shrinkwrapped software.  The cost
is based on the number of installations that are in place.  The
organization will never be charged more than an agreed upon maximum.  As
the number of installations increases, the per seat cost decreases such
that maximum is never exceeded.  An organization can install as many
copies of ecsmail as they like.

Development contracts are signed to produce new functionality in the
ecsmail product.   ISA has identified a number of potential
functionality improvements that it would like to make to ecsmail.
We also believe that clients will have a number of features that they
would like to see added to the product.

The cost of the contract is determined by the amount of work required to
complete the development, and the number of organizations contributing
to the development.   The more organizations that contribute, the lower
the cost.   ISA publishes a detailed list of feature development
projects that it plans to run in the ecs-info mailing list (see below).

Mailing lists
-------------

There is an ecs mailing list.   To join the mailing list send a message
to

  ecs-info-request@edm.isac.ca

To submit messages to the mailing list, send mail to

  ecs-info@edm.isac.ca

If there are problems with the list, then send mail to

  owner-ecs-info@edm.isac.ca

--
Steve Hole                      Director of Research and Communications
ISA Corporation                 mail:  steve@edm.isac.ca
Suite 835, 10040 - 104 St.      phone: (403) 420-8081
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada       fax:   (403) 420-8037
T5J 0Z2
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU