for binary addition of these if the data type isnt mentioned like decimal, hexadecimal or octal what do i treat it as

And finally, I've decided to write about good ole SMTP., also known as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

Twas the night before... some night in November 1981 (I couldn't find the exact date), Jonathan Postel published RFC 788 while working at the U niversity of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. And what was RFC 788? Titled "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", it was the first round of rules and specification laid out for computers to follow when sending emails from one mail server to another.

Unlike my dive into FTP, I was able to find a more accurate date for the birth of our modern day SMTP. In August 1982, Jon Postel (again) published a revised and updated Simple Mail Transfer Protocol in the well known RFC 821. So, some could argue that the creation of (our modern day) SMTP was in 1982, though, I would argue that it was in 1981, and was improved upon.

Now, about Mr. Jon Postel... it turns out he was quite influential amoung network researchers and helped develop, define, and document many internet tools and techs. Like enough that I should do a seperate article just about him and his career. (Maybe? let me know) Some of those include: SMTP, TCP/IP, RFCs, IANA, and more. The man was busy.

In regards to SMTP, he was 38/39 years old when he published RFC 788/821 and worked as a research scientist at USC's Information Sciences Institute. He was working on ARPANET/Internet protocols and serving as a central figure in the RFC process. When I was reading about this, I also saw the name Paul Mockapetris, who was also at ISI around this time, and later on developed the first SMTP email server there before going on to invent DNS. (DNS would be a cool one to write about also).

Let's end today by answering the simple question... why was SMTP created? Well, before SMTP, emails already existed. And different systems could already handle the mail in different ways, but there was no standard set of rules. And like literally everything in computer science, things become easier to do when you have a nice tidy set of rules that everyone can follow. And so, in simple terms , Jon gave the computers the following rules:

-Identify who a message is from
-Identify who it is going to
-Transfer the message
-Relay it through other mail servers if needed
-Confirm whether delivery succeeded or failed

I think I'll wrap up here today. Let me know your thoughts and if you have any other suggestions. I'm quite enjoying these historic dives. I kind of want to write about RFCs, Paul, and this guy some more... well, anywyas... Catch ya later!