EMail With A Mind of Its Own: The Safe-Tcl Language for Enabled Mail

Abstract

A uniform extension language for email systems can radically extend the utility of electronic mail, simplifying the construction of mail-based services and permitting the delivery of active messages that interact with their recipients and take differential actions based on the recipients’ responses. This paper describes such a language, Safe-Tcl, including the strong security and portability constraints it has to satisfy, and outlines its fundamental design. Keyword Codes: C.2.4, D.3.2, H.4.3