>As you may know, IBM is leaving BITNET very soon;   ...
 
        Not to side-track the thread,  but ...
 
        One of the consequences of leaving BITNET is that you lose
interactive messaging (TELL) and unsolicited file transfer outside of mail
(SENDFILE).   These are available for TCP/IP,  but are not yet in the
standard suite of tools/protocols supported by most TCP/IP vendors.
 
        MSP, Message Send Protocol,  gives you back the TELL function.
Last time I saw FTP Software's product for Windows,  it supported MSP.
There is,  of course,  an implementation for VM.   There are also
implementations for UNIX and (believe it!) Pr1me.   See RFC 1312.
 
        UFT/SIFT, my own invention,  gives you back the SENDFILE function.
If enough sites would run it,  then we'd have better critical mass.
As it is,  it's running on a few hosts here and there.   UFT/SIFT is
available for both VM and UNIX (POSIX).   The VM version will fall-back
to sending files via mail (MIME) if a UFT server isn't available on the
target host.   This part could use some work.   Volunteers?
 
        It would be really slick if RSCS would support MSP and/or UFT.
 
--
Rick Troth <[log in to unmask]>, Houston, Texas, USA
http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~troth/