CMU-ITC-88-064 A Multi-media Message System for Andrew

The Andrew Message System (AMS) is a portable, distributed, multi-media, multi-interface system for r_ding and sending mail and bulletin board (bboard) messages. Mail and bulletin board processing was selected as a "showcase" application to demonstrate how the Andrew file system and user interface toolkit could be applied most usefully to a user's daily tasks. The AMS supports multi-media messages, which may include line drawings, hierarchical drawings, spreadsheets, raster images, animations, and equations. It is explicitly designed to support a huge database of messages and an enormous user community. At CMU, it services over 1200 bboards, including nemews, the Dow Jones information service broadtape, and bboards on which newspaper cartoons appear as raster images. The system incorporates a B-tree based "white pages" for doing name lookx._ ups, including phonetic matching of misspelled names. In addition, the system supports a number of advanced features such as voting on multiple-choice questions, private bboards, shared mailboxes, and automatic classification of incoming mail messages. The server-based architecture makes it easy for client interfaces to be ported to or built on almost any computer. Currently, interfaces run on IBM RTs, DEC MicroVaxes, Suns, IBM PC's, Macintoshes, and Vax UNIXt and VMS timesharing systems.