Seventh Heaven: The Spec's in the Mail

The paper discusses the coevolution of the Internet Text Message (RFC 822) format and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP, RFC 821), from its roots as a printer-spooling convention piggybacked on FTP through the development of the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) up to the latest drafts of the Detailed Revision/Update of Message Standards (DRUMS) working group.