Glenda Schroeder is an American

software engineer Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...

noted for implementing the first

command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

and publishing one of the earliest research papers describing electronic mail systems while working as a member of the staff at the MIT Computation Center in 1965.

Biography

Early operating system

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

s were implemented as part of

resident monitor In computing, a resident monitor is a type of system software program that was used in many early computers from the 1950s to 1970s. It can be considered a precursor to the operating system. The name is derived from a program which is always pre ...

programs, and could not easily be replaced. In 1964, MIT Computation Center staff member

Louis Pouzin Louis Pouzin (April 20, 1931 in Chantenay-Saint-Imbert, Nièvre, France) is a French computer scientist. He designed an early packet communications network, CYCLADES. This network was the first actual implementation of the pure datagram model, ...

developed the

RUNCOM RUNCOM is a CTSS macro command (script) processor. History Louis Pouzin created RUNCOM for CTSS circa 1963. He wrote a paper in 1965 describing a design for the Multics shell which includes a brief description of RUNCOM followed by a second p ...

tool for executing command scripts while allowing argument substitution. Pouzin coined the term "

" to describe the technique of using commands like a programming language, and wrote a paper describing how to implement the idea in the

Multics Multics ("Multiplexed Information and Computing Service") is an influential early time-sharing operating system based on the concept of a single-level memory.Dennis M. Ritchie, "The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System", Communications of t ...

operating system. Pouzin returned to his native France in 1965, and Schroeder developed the first Multics shell with the assistance of an unnamed man from

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

. Schroeder's Multics shell was the predecessor to the

Unix shell A Unix shell is a command-line Interpreter (computing), interpreter or shell (computing), shell that provides a command line user interface for Unix-like operating systems. The shell is both an interactive command language and a scripting langua ...

, which is still in use today. Working with Pat Crisman and

, she also described an early

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

system called "MAIL" to allow users on the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) at MIT to send notifications to others about backups of files. Each user's messages would be added to a local file called "MAIL BOX", which would have a “private” mode so that only the owner could read or delete messages. The proposed uses of the proto-email system were for communication from CTSS to notify users that files had been backed up, discussion between authors of CTSS commands, and communication from command authors to the CTSS manual editor. The service only made it possible to leave messages for the other users on the same computer. The idea to allow users to send messages between computers was developed later by

Ray Tomlinson Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (April 23, 1941 – March 5, 2016) was an American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; It was the first system able to send mail be ...

in 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schroeder, Glenda Internet pioneers Women Internet pioneers Living people American women engineers American software engineers Operating system people Massachusetts Institute of Technology people Multics people American computer programmers Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers