电子邮件之父汤姆林森去世

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.

发出世界上第一封现代电子邮件的程序员雷•汤姆林森(Ray Tomlinson)去世了，享年74岁。他让我们的电子通信中有了@标志。

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，汤姆林森写出一个程序，允许Arpanet计算机网上的不同计算机相互交换信息。Arpanet是互联网的前身。在那之前，唯有使用相同主机的人之间才能交换电子信息。

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

这名程序员表示，他发出的第一份电子邮件并非重要的内容，可能包含键盘上“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.

当时，他正在研究军方网络Arpanet的可能用途，尤其对改进该网络的“邮箱”功能感兴趣——该功能允许用户向标记了数字编号的邮箱发送信息。在那时以前，发送信息需要有人把信息内容打印出来，然后再亲自放入邮箱。

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

为了解决这个问题，汤姆林森编写了一个文件传输程序，允许一条信息通过ArpaNet以电子方式发送给另外一部计算机。

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.

汤姆林森也想出了使用@符号来隔开收信人姓名和主机名的主意，创建了如今仍在使用的标准。

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

尽管有了40年以上的历史，汤姆林森表示，电子邮件自问世以来并无太大变化。

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

汤姆林森出生于纽约州，先在伦斯勒理工学院|Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)攻读电子工程专业，接着在麻省理工学院(MIT)获得了硕士学位。

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，汤姆林森在马萨诸塞州加入了BBN公司，并一直在那里工作。后来，BBN被雷神(Raytheon)收购，改名为雷神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.”

“我们的同事和朋友去世了，我们对此感到巨大的伤悲，”雷神发表声明称。“一位真正的技术先驱……他的工作改变了世界的沟通方式。”