Ray Tomlinson
Raymond Samuel "Ray" Tomlinson (born October 2, 1941 in Amsterdam , New York , † March 5, 2016 in Lincoln , Massachusetts ) was an American computer scientist . He is considered to be the inventor of email .
Life
Tomlinson studied electrical engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . During his studies in 1960 he began to write computer programs.
After graduating, Tomlinson worked as a computer technician at Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) in Cambridge, Massachusetts , a private research company that was commissioned by the United States Department of Defense in 1968 to build the Arpanet - the predecessor of the Internet .
Initially CPYNET was created , a protocol which could transfer files between interconnected computer systems. It should be expanded so that messages can also be transmitted. Tomlinson used the program SNDMSG for this purpose , which was only designed for local use and created so-called mailboxes, which were actually nothing more than files. He combined SNDMSG and CPYNET into a separate program. In order to be able to distinguish between the addressee and the computer, Tomlinson chose the @ sign as a unique separator , since this was not used in the written language.
While Tomlinson was developing his email messaging system, no one saw its utility today; his work was seen more as a gimmick. When Tomlinson demonstrated his system to a colleague, he jokingly remarked:
“Don't tell anyone! This isn't what we're supposed to be working on. "
“Don't tell anyone! That's not what we're supposed to be working on. "
In 1971 Tomlinson presented the program to his employees and sent the first email. Their exact content is unknown; Tomlinson could only remember explaining, among other things, the use of the @ symbol. In 2009, Tomlinson and Martin Cooper received the Prince of Asturias Prize in the science and research category .
Tomlinson was no longer involved in the further development of e-mail.
Ray Tomlinson died on March 5, 2016 of complications from a heart attack.
Web links
- Homepage of Ray Tomlinson (English)
- Article in Stern magazine on December 1, 2006
Individual evidence
- ^ Email inventor Ray Tomlinson dies at 74
- ↑ "That was really said in jest"
- ↑ Sasha Cavender: Legends . Forbes, October 5, 1998. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
- ↑ Detlef Borchers: Ray @ Heaven: on the death of Ray Tomlinson. Heise, March 6, 2016, accessed March 7, 2016 .
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Tomlinson, Ray |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tomlinson, Raymond Samuel |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American programmer, believed to be the inventor of email |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 2, 1941 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Amsterdam , New York |
DATE OF DEATH | 5th March 2016 |
Place of death | Lincoln , Massachusetts |