電子郵件之父湯姆林森去世

Ray Tomlinson, the programmer credited with sending the world’s first modern email who is responsible for the use of the @ symbol in electronic communications, has died aged 74.

發出世界上第一封現代電子郵件的程式設計師雷•湯姆林森(Ray Tomlinson)去世了，享年74歲。他讓我們的電子通訊中有了@標誌。

Tomlinson wrote a program in 1971 that allowed messages to be exchanged between different computers on the ArpaNet, the precursor to the internet. Electronic messages had previously only been exchanged between people using the same mainframe machine.

1971年，湯姆林森寫出一個程式，允許Arpanet計算機網上的不同計算機相互交換資訊。Arpanet是網際網路的前身。在那之前，唯有使用相同主機的人之間才能交換電子資訊。

The programmer said the first email sent was a trivial test message, probably containing something along the lines of “QWERTYUIOP”.

這名程式設計師表示，他發出的第一份電子郵件並非重要的內容，可能包含鍵盤上“QWERTYUIOP”那一行中的字母。

At the time of his invention, Tomlinson was researching possible uses for the ArpaNet, the US military network that formed the basis of the internet, and was particularly interested in improving ArpaNet’s “mailbox” function, which allowed users to send messages to numbered mailboxes. Up to then this had involved someone printing out the message and physically placing it in the mailbox.

當時，他正在研究軍方網路Arpanet的可能用途，尤其對改進該網路的“郵箱”功能感興趣——該功能允許使用者向標記了數字編號的郵箱傳送資訊。在那時以前，傳送資訊需要有人把資訊內容列印出來，然後再親自放入郵箱。

To resolve this problem Tomlinson wrote a file transfer program that allowed a message to be delivered electronically to a separate computer through ArpaNet.

為了解決這個問題，湯姆林森編寫了一個檔案傳輸程式，允許一條資訊通過ArpaNet以電子方式傳送給另外一部計算機。

Tomlinson also came up with the idea of using the “@” symbol to separate the name of the recipient from the name of the host, creating the standard still used today.

湯姆林森也想出了使用@符號來隔開收信人姓名和主機名的主意，建立瞭如今仍在使用的標準。

In spite of a history of more than four decades, Tomlinson said email had not changed much since its invention.

儘管有了40年以上的歷史，湯姆林森表示，電子郵件自問世以來並無太大變化。

Born in New York State, Tomlinson studied electrical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic and then earned his masters at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

湯姆林森出生於紐約州，先在倫斯勒理工學院|Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)攻讀電子工程專業，接著在麻省理工學院(MIT)獲得了碩士學位。

He joined Bolt, Beranek, and Newman in 1967 in Massachusetts, and stayed there the rest of his life. BBN was later acquired by Raytheon and known as Raytheon BBN.

1967年，湯姆林森在馬薩諸塞州加入了BBN公司，並一直在那裡工作。後來，BBN被雷神(Raytheon)收購，改名為雷神BBN。

“It is with great sadness we acknowledge the passing of our colleague and friend,” Ratheon said in a statement. “A true technology pioneer . . . his work changed the way the world communicates.”

“我們的同事和朋友去世了，我們對此感到巨大的傷悲，”雷神發表宣告稱。“一位真正的技術先驅……他的工作改變了世界的溝通方式。”