RFC 1580
Guide to Network Resource Tools
Pages: 107
FYI 23
FYI 23
Part 1 of 4 – Pages 1 to 27
Network Working Group EARN Staff Request for Comments: 1580 EARN Association FYI: 23 March 1994 Category: Informational Guide to Network Resource Tools Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. GOPHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1. What is Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2. Who can use Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.3. How to get to Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.3.1. Local clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.4. Using Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.5. VERONICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.6. Learning more about Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3. WORLD-WIDE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.1. What is World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.1. Local clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.2. Remote clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.2.1. E-mail access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.4. Using World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 3.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4. WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.1. What is WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.2. Who can use WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.3. How to get to WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.4. Using WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.4.1. E-mail access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 4.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 4.6 Learning more about WAIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 5. ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 5.1. What is ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 5.2. Who can use ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 5.3. How to get to ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.4. Using ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.1.1. Archie client command and parameters . . . . . . . . . 29
5.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.6. Learning more about ARCHIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6. WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.1. What is WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.2. Who can use WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.3. How to get to WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.4. Using WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.4.2. Using Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.6. Learning more about WHOIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7. X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.1. What is X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.2. Who can use X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.3. How to get to X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.4. Using X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.4.1. Using a local client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.4.2. Using Telnet or X.25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.4.3. Using electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.6. Learning more about X.500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8. NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.1. What is NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.2. Who can use NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.3. How to get to NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.4. Using NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.4.1. Local access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.4.2. Remote access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.6. Learning more about NETFIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9. TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.1. What is TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.2. Who can use TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.3 How to get to TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.4. Using TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
9.6. Learning more about TRICKLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10. BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.1. What is BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.2. Who can use BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.3. How to get to BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.4. Using BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
10.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
10.6. Learning more about BITFTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11. LISTSERV (Version 1.7f). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11.1. What is LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11.2. Who can use LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.3. How to get to LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.4. Using LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
11.4.1. Commands for LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
11.4.2. Commands for FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
11.4.3. LISTSERV DATABASE Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
11.4.4. Commands for INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
11.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
11.6. Learning more about LISTSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12. NETNEWS (USENET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.1. What is NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.2. Who can use NETNEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
12.3. How to get to NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.4. Using NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
12.6. Learning more about NETNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13. OTHER TOOLS OF INTEREST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1. ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1.1. What is ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
13.1.2. How to get to ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.1.3. Learning more about ASTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2. NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2.1. What is NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
13.2.2. How to get to NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
13.2.3. Learning more about NETSERV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3. MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.1. What is MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.2. How to get to MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.3.3. Learning more about MAILBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13.4. PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.1. What is PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.2. How to get to PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.4.3. Learning more about PROSPERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5. IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5.1. What is IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5.2. How to get to IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.5.3. Learning more about IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6. RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6.1. What is RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6.2. How to get to RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
13.6.3. Learning more about RELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
14. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
15. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
16. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
17. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 18. Appendix A - Freely available networking software . . . . . 103 18.1. Gopher clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 18.2. World-Wide Web clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 18.3. WAIS clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 18.4. Netnews - news reader software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 1. Introduction As the worldwide academic computer network grows and expands far beyond its previous confines, so the resources and services available on the network evolve and multiply at a dizzying rate. The typical user is hardpressed to keep up with this explosive growth. Fortunately, a number of tools are available to facilitate the task of locating and retrieving network resources, so that users anywhere can utilize texts, data, software and information for public access. Facilities to explore public domain software repositories, to consult mailing list archives and databases, to retrieve directory information and to participate in global group discussions are now available to all. The key to exploiting these resources is a server, special software on a computer somewhere in the network which accepts requests (or queries or commands) and sends a response automatically. The requestor does not have to be working on the same computer (or even in the same part of the world) in order to use the server. Many servers accept requests via electronic mail, so that often the requestor needs not even be on the same computer network as the server. In many cases, servers are interconnected so that once you have established contact with one server, you can easily communicate with other servers as well. Today, many users have powerful computers on the desktop, with advanced graphical, audio and storage capabilities, which are connected to the network. This fact has given rise to what is known as the client-server model. Users can have special software on their local computer called a client which can utilize the capabilities of that computer and can also communicate with a server on the network. These clients provide an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface, allow use of pointing devices such as a mouse, and exploit other local features. The client sends the user's requests to a server using a standardized format (called a protocol) and the server sends its response in a condensed format which the client displays to the user in a more readable way. Several of the tools described herein have several different functions. However they could be classified in functional areas according to their main purpose. Sections two and three cover two
services, Gopher and World-Wide Web, which use the client-server model to explore the network providing a means of moving through a wide range of network sources and resources in a uniform and intuitive way. A tool for searching in a wide range of different databases located throughout the network, WAIS, is documented in section four. The problem of knowing where to find network resources (files and programs) is addressed in section five, which deals with archie. Three tools for finding people, computers and their network addresses, WHOIS, X.500 and Netfind, are discussed in sections six, seven and eight. While just about all of these network tools can be used to get files of one sort or another, there are a few servers available for getting files easily and efficiently from various repositories in the network. Two of these servers, TRICKLE and BITFTP, are covered in sections nine and ten. Sections eleven and twelve deal with what is perhaps the most popular of all the network resources, discussion groups on every imaginable topic. The two tools discussed there are LISTSERV and Netnews (Usenet). Section thirteen gives brief descriptions and pointers for a number of tools which were not mainstream enough to get a full description. Some are still in the developmental stage (Prospero), some are relatively unknown outside a particular network (ASTRA and Netserv from EARN/Bitnet and Mailbase from JANET) and some are meant for chatting rather than work (Relay and IRC). The purpose of this guide is to supply the basic information that anyone on the network needs to try out and begin using these tools. A basic knowledge of networking terminology has been assumed, as well as familiarity with the basic tools of networking: electronic mail (often referred to as e-mail or simply mail throughout this guide) and, for those connected to the Internet, FTP (file transfer protocol) and Telnet (remote login). It is beyond the scope of this guide to describe these basic tools. The example in the BITFTP section of this guide shows how one can use BITFTP to get guides to these tools over the network. 2. GOPHER 2.1. What is Gopher The Internet Gopher, or simply Gopher, is a distributed document delivery service. It allows users to explore, search and retrieve information residing on different locations in a seamless fashion. When browsing it, the information appears to the user as a series of nested menus. This kind of menu structure resembles the organization of a directory with many subdirectories and files. The subdirectories and the files may be located either on the local server site or on remote sites served by other Gopher servers. From the user point of
view, all information items presented on the menus appear to come from the same place. The information can be a text or binary file, directory information (loosely called phone book), image or sound. In addition, Gopher offers gateways to other information systems (World-Wide Web, WAIS, archie, WHOIS) and network services (Telnet, FTP). Gopher is often a more convenient way to navigate in a FTP directory and to download files. A Gopher server holds the information and handles the users' queries. In addition, links to other Gopher servers create a network wide cooperation to form the global Gopher web (Gopherspace). 2.2. Who can use Gopher Gopher uses the client-server model to provide access to the Gopher web. You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) in order to use a client on your computer to access Gopher. 2.3. How to get to Gopher Users explore the Gopher menus using various local clients or accessing a remote client via an interactive Telnet session. 2.3.1. Local clients Public domain clients for accessing a Gopher server are available for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VM/CMS, VMS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows. The clients are available for anonymous FTP from many FTP sites (e.g., boombox.micro.umn.edu in the directory /pub/gopher). See the list of freely available client software in Appendix A. 2.3.2. Remote clients Some sites allow public access to a client. To access such a remote client, telnet to one of these sites: +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | info.anu.edu.au Australia (login: info) | | tolten.puc.cl Columbia | | ecnet.ec Ecuador | | gopher.chalmers.se Sweden | | consultant.micro.umn.edu USA | | gopher.uiuc.edu USA | | panda.uiowa.edu USA (login: panda) | | sunsite.unc.edu USA | +---------------------------------------------------------------+
At the login: prompt type gopher (unless specified otherwise) and
the top-level Gopher menu for that site will be displayed.
Users are requested to use the site closest to them.
2.4. Using Gopher
The implementations of the Gopher clients on various platforms are
slightly different to take advantage of the platforms'
capabilities (mouse, graphic functions, X-Windows server) and to
offer the popular look and feel. Even with different
implementations, the same set of functions and commands is
available.
When issuing the gopher command, you will be connected
automatically to the default Gopher server specified at the
installation. The format of the command is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| gopher <hostname> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
where hostname is an optional alternative Gopher server you want
to talk to.
When connected to a Gopher server, it is still possible to access
another server by exploring the Other Gopher servers in the rest
of the world branch. To locate them more easily, the Gopher
servers are distributed in geographical regions:
* Africa
* Europe
* Middle East
* North America
* Pacific
* South America
and then by countries.
Access to a Gopher server is identical whether using a local or a
remote client: a simple menu-driven interface which doesn't
require any special training or knowledge from the user.
Here is a sample menu:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Gopher Information Client v1.1
Information About Gopher
1. About Gopher.
2. Search Gopher News <?>
3. Gopher News Archive/
4. comp.infosystems.gopher (Usenet newsgroup)/
5. Gopher Software Distribution/
6. Gopher Protocol Information/
7. University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy.
8. Frequently Asked Questions about Gopher.
9. gopher93/
10. Gopher| example server/
11. How to get your information into Gopher.
--> 12. New Stuff in Gopher.
13. Reporting Problems or Feedback.
14. big Ann Arbor gopher conference picture.gif <Picture>
Press ? for Help, q to Quit, u to go up a menu Page: 1/1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In the example above, any item can be selected by typing its line
number or by moving the cursor (-->) next to it.
An item could be:
* a subdirectory
* a text file
* a binary file
* a sound file
* an image file
* a phone book (directory information)
* an index-search
* a Telnet session
Items are displayed with an identifying symbol next to them. In
the example above, "<?>" means a full text index-search, "/" means
a subdirectory, "<Picture>" means an image file and no symbol
means a text file.
Some Gopher clients are not able to handle certain file types
(e.g., sound files). Some clients display only files of types they
can handle or files they suppose you are interested in. Others
display all types of files.
Most Gopher clients allow you to create, view and select
bookmarks. A bookmark keeps track of the exact location of a
Gopher item, regardless of where it resides. It is useful when you
often need to reach a file or a service located far from the
top-level directory. A collection of bookmarks is like a
customized Gopher menu.
Some capabilities of a local Gopher client are bound to the
capabilities of your own computer. In fact, for sound files, image
files and Telnet sessions, the Gopher client looks for the
appropriate software on your computer and passes control to it to
perform the requested task. When the task is completed, control is
returned to the Gopher client.
At any time, it is possible to terminate the session (quit
command), to cancel the current processing or to get the on-line
help (help command).
An item is processed according to its type:
a subdirectory
its contents are displayed. To go up one level, use the up
command.
a text file
the file is displayed. Then you can browse it, search for a
particular string, print it on a local printer or copy (save)
it onto your local disk space in a user-specified file (the
last 2 functions may not be available to you).
a binary file
the remote file is simply copied onto your local disk space in
a user-specified file. Binary files are binhexed Macintosh
files, archives (.zip, .tar,...), compressed files, programs,
etc.
a sound file
the remote file is played through your local audio device if it
exists, as well as the appropriate utility. Only one sound file
can be active at a time; you will be warned if you try to play
a sound before a previous one is done.
an image file
the remote file is displayed on your computer screen if an
image viewer exists on your computer.
a phone book
you are prompted for a search string to look up people
information through the selected phone book. Since different
institutions have different directory services, the queries are
not performed in the same fashion.
an index-search
you are prompted for a search string which may be one or more
words, plus the special operators and, or, and not. The search
is case-insensitive. Usually, an index is created to help users
locate the information in a set of documents quickly. E.g.:
terminal and setting or tset
will find all documents which contain both the words terminal
and setting, or the word tset. or is nonexclusive so the
documents may contain all of the words.
The result of the index-search looks like any Gopher menu, but
each menu item is a file that contains the specified search
string.
a Telnet session
Telnet sessions are normally text-based information services,
for example, access to library catalogs.
2.5. VERONICA
Veronica was designed as a solution to the problem of resource
discovery in the rapidly-expanding Gopher web, providing a keyword
search of more than 500 Gopher menus. Veronica helps you find
Gopher-based information without doing a menu-by-menu, site-by-site
search. It is to the Gopher information space, what archie is to the
FTP archives.
Veronica is accessible from most top-level Gopher menus or from the
Other Gopher servers... branch. There is no need for opening another
connection or another application.
When you choose a veronica search , you will be prompted to enter a
keyword or keywords. The simplest way to search with veronica is to
enter a single word and hit the RETURN key. It does not matter
whether the word is upper-case or lower-case. The veronica server
will return a gopher menu composed of items whose titles match your
keyword specification. Items can be accessed as with any Gopher menu.
E.g.:
eudora
will give you a list of menu titles that contain eudora, such as:
Electronic Mail: Eudora on Macintosh, Micro-08
Modem Setting Eudora Slip.
A UNIX-based Eudora reader for those that ...
Eudora: Popmail for the Macintosh.
Eudora.
etc.
The search string may contain keywords optionally separated by and,
or and not. If there is no operator between 2 keywords, and is
assumed. E.g.:
eudora and macintosh
will give you a list of menu titles that contain both eudora and
macintosh, such as:
Eudora: Popmail for the Macintosh.
v4.1 EUDORA: E-MAIL FOR THE MACINTOSH.
Micro News: Eudora - A Mailer for the Macintosh.
Eudora: Electronic Mail on Your Macintosh.
ACS News - Eudora Mail Reader for Macintosh.
etc.
"*" is the wildcard character. It can replace any other character or
characters at the end of a keyword. E.g.:
desk*
will give you a list of menu titles, such as:
The Help Desk.
Keene State College Press Release COMPUTER ON EVERY DESK.
DESKQview/X... An alternative to Windows???.
Ethernet at Your Desktop/
etc.
2.6. Learning more about Gopher
The Internet Gopher is developed by the Computer and Information
Services Department of the University of Minnesota. Bug reports,
comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to the Gopher
development team at: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu.
Mailing list: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu To subscribe send a mail to: gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.gopher A comprehensive description of veronica search methods is available from the veronica menus. Veronica is being developed by Steve Foster and Fred Barrie at the University of Nevada. Bug reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be addressed to: gophadm@futique.scs.unr.edu 3. WORLD-WIDE WEB 3.1. What is World-Wide Web World-Wide Web (also called WWW or W3) is an information system based on hypertext, which offers a means of moving from document to document (usually called to navigate) within a network of information. Hypertext documents are linked to each other through a selected set of words. For example, when a new word, or a new concept, is introduced in a text, hypertext makes it possible to point to another document which gives more details about it. The reader can open the second document by selecting the unknown word or concept and the relevant section is displayed. The second document may also contain links to further details. The reader need not know where the referenced document is, and there is no need to type a command to display it, or to browse it to find the right paragraph. Cross-references may be defined in the same document. A collection of documents is a database. If you were reading this document on a hypertext system, instead of this all too short explanation about hypertext, you would have a selectable pointer to a complete hypertext information web with examples and more pointers to other definitions. For instance, in the first document you might read: ----------------------------------------------------------------- The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area "hypermedia" information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents. -----------------------------------------------------------------
Selecting hypermedia will display the following explanation for you:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS HYPERTEXT
Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear.
Hypertext is text which contains "links" to other texts. The term
was coined by "Ted Nelson" around 1965 (see "History").
HyperMedia is a term used for hypertext which is not constrained
to be text: it can include graphics, video and "sound", for
example. Apparently Ted Nelson was the first to use this term too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Then you can learn more about links and Nelson. Indeed, the links in
WWW are not confined to text only, so the term hypermedia is more
accurate. For example, the link to Nelson might point to a file
containing a picture of Ted Nelson. The picture would be displayed on
your screen if you have a suitable configuration.
Also, special documents (indexes) in the WWW information space can be
search for given keyword(s). The result is a document which contains
links to the documents found.
World-Wide Web uses hypertext over the network: the linked documents
may be located at various sites. WWW can handle different text
formats and various information organizations. WWW also provides
access to many of the other tools described in this guide.
3.2. Who can use World-Wide Web
WWW uses the client-server model to provide access to the information
universe. You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the
Internet) in order to use a client on your computer to access WWW. If
you are on the Internet, but don't have a WWW client on your
computer, you can still enter the World-Wide Web. Several sites offer
public interactive access to WWW clients (see the Remote clients
section under How to get to World-Wide Web below).
If you have e-mail access only, or if you are not on the Internet
then you can not fully exploit the vast potential of WWW. However, a
mail-robot is available at the address: listserv@info.cern.ch which
gives e-mail access to WWW-accessible listserv@info.cern.ch files.
(see E-mail access section under How to get to World-Wide Web below).
3.3. How to get to World-Wide Web Users access the World-Wide Web facilities via a client called a browser. This interface provides transparent access to the WWW servers. If a local WWW client is not available on your computer, you may use a client at a remote site. Thus, an easy way to start with WWW is to access a remote client. 3.3.1. Local clients Usage of a local client is encouraged since it provides better performance and better response time than a remote client. Public domain clients for accessing WWW servers are available for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, VMS, VM/CMS, MVS, NeXT, Unix, X-Windows. The clients are available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in the directory /pub/www. All these platforms support a simple line mode browser. In addition, graphical clients are available for: Macintosh, Windows, X-Windows, NeXT and Unix. See the list of freely available client software in Appendix A. 3.3.2. Remote clients To access a remote WWW client, telnet to the client site. If you are new to WWW, you should telnet to info.cern.ch. No login is needed. You will immediately enter the WWW line mode browser. Some publicly accessible clients feature locally developed clients. Most remote clients are at sites with WWW servers with information on specific areas. After you telnet to the client site, at the login: prompt enter www, no password is needed. The following remote client sites are available: +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Site Country Server Specialization| | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | vms.huji.ac.il Israel Environment | | info.cern.ch Switzerland (CERN) High-energy physics| | fatty.law.cornell.edu USA Law | | ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu USA History | | www.njit.edu USA | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ CERN is the entry point to find information about WWW itself and to have an overview of the Web with a catalogue of the databases sorted by subject.
3.3.2.1. E-mail access In order to get a file, send mail to listserv@info.cern.ch with a SEND command. The SEND command returns the document with the given WWW address, subject to certain restrictions. Hypertext documents are formatted to 72 character width, with links numbered. A separate list at the end of the file gives the document-addresses of the related documents. If the document is hypertext, its links will be marked by numbers in brackets, and a list of document addresses by number will be appended to the message. In this way, you can navigate through the web, more or less. A good file to start with would be: http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html Note that, despite the name listserv in the address of this mail robot, it is not a LISTSERV server. A note of caution from the WWW developers and maintainers: "As the robot gives potential mail access to a *vast* amount of information, we must emphasise that the service should not be abused. Examples of appropriate use would be: * Accessing any information about W3 itself; * Accessing any CERN and/or physics-related or network development related information; Examples of INappropriate use would be: * Attempting to retrieve binaries or tar files or anything more than directory listings or short ASCII files from FTP archive sites; * Reading Usenet newsgroups which your site doesn't receive; * Repeated automatic use. There is currently a 1000 line limit on any returned file. We don't want to overload other people's mail relays or our server. We reserve the right to withdraw the service at any time. We are currently monitoring all use of the server, so your reading will not initially enjoy privacy. Enjoy!" The W3 team at CERN (www-bug@info.cern.ch)
3.4. Using World-Wide Web When using a graphical interface, you access the WWW functions by pressing mouse buttons. In particular, references are highlighted or underlined words. To follow a link, click on the associated reference. The line mode browser is a more simple user interface: references are numbers in square brackets next to words. Type the number and hit the RETURN key to follow a reference. For example, here is the beginning of the Subject Catalogue you get on the CERN server: ----------------------------------------------------------------- The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY This is the subject catalogue. See also arrangement by service type[1]. Mail www-request@info.cern.ch to add pointers to this list. Aeronautics Mailing list archive index[2]. See also NASA LaRC[3] Agriculture[4] Separate list, see also Almanac mail servers[5]. Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstract Indexes[6] at NASA, Astrophysics work at FNAL[7], Princeton's[8] Sloane Digital Sky Survey, the STELAR project, Space Telescope Electronic Information System[9], the Southampton University Astronomy Group[10], the National Solar Observatory[11], Astrophysics work at the AHPCRC[12]. See also: space[13]. Bio Sciences[14] Separate list. Computing[15] Separate list. 1-81, Back, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: ----------------------------------------------------------------- The following commands are available within WWW. Some are disabled when not applicable (e.g., Find is enabled only when the current document is an index). Angle brackets (<>) indicate an optional parameter.
Help
gives a list of available commands depending on the context, and
the hypertext address of the current document.
Manual
displays the on-line manual.
Quit
exits WWW.
Up, Down
scrolls up or down one page in the current document.
Top, BOttom
goes to the top or the bottom of the current document.
Back
goes back to the document you were reading before.
HOme
goes back to the first document you were reading.
Next, Previous
goes to the next or previous document in the list of pointers from
the document that led to the current one.
List
gives a numbered list of the links from the current document. To
follow a link, type in the number.
Recall <number>
if number is omitted, gives a numbered list of the documents you
have visited.
To display one specific document, re-issue the command with
number.
<Find> keyword
queries the current index with the supplied keyword(s). A list of
matching entries is displayed with possibly links to further
details. Find can be omitted if the first keyword does not
conflict with another WWW command. Multiple keywords are separated
by blanks.
Go docaddress
goes to the document represented by the given hypertext address,
which is interpreted relatively to the current document.
Extra command available on Unix versions only:
Print
prints the current document, without the numbered document
references. The default print command is lpr, but it may be
defined in your local working environment by the variable
WWW_PRINT_COMMAND.
To access WWW with the line mode browser, type: www. The default
first document will appear on your screen. From this point, you
should be able to navigate through the WWW universe by reading the
text and following the instructions at the bottom of the screen. If
you want to start with a first document other than the default, or if
you want to change some other aspect of the usual interaction, there
are a number of command line parameters and options available. The
full format of the www command to invoke the line mode browser is:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| www <options> <docaddress <keyword>> |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
where:
docaddress
is the hypertext address of the document at which you want to
start browsing.
keyword
queries the index specified by docaddress with the supplied
keyword(s). A list of matching entries is displayed. Multiple
keywords are separated by blanks.
Options are:
-n
non-interactive mode. The document is formatted and displayed to
the screen. Pages are delimited with form feed characters (FF).
-listrefs
adds a list of the addresses of all documents references to the
end. Non-interactive mode only.
-pn
sets the page length to n lines. Without a number, makes the page
length infinite. Default is 24.
-wn
sets the page width to n columns. The default is 78, 79 or 80
depending on the system.
-na
hides references in the text. Useful, when printing out the
document.
-version
displays the version number of the software.
The commands listed above should be available in all clients. They
may be abbreviated (CAPITAL letters indicate acceptable
abbreviation). Case is not significant. Special characteristics of
the line mode browser interface are:
number
type in a number given in [] and hit the RETURN key to follow the
link associated to the reference.
RETURN
hit the RETURN key to display the next page of the current
document (without a reference number).
3.5. Examples
WWW gives you access to an information universe. Let's say you want
to know how many film versions of The Three Musketeers there have
been. You browse the WWW Subject Catalogue and select Movies:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie database browser (Cardiff)
A Hypertext movie database browser
Sep 2nd... Your help is needed..[1]
Aug 29th.. Images, sounds, mpegs & reviews[2]
Select the type of search you'd like to perform:-
Movie people[3].....(multi Oscar winners)[4] or
Movie titles[5] .....(multi Oscar winners)[6]
Searches the "rec.arts.movies" movie database system, maintained
by Col Needham et-al.
Here[7] is some information on list maintainers.
If you have a comment or suggestion, it can be recorded here[8]
HERE[9] is a pre-1986 movie information gopher server. (at
Manchester UK)
1-13, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You select Movie titles, and then type three musketeers as keywords:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie title queries
MOVIE TITLE QUERY
Enter a movie title or substring.
Example, to search for movies with the word "alien" in their
title, type "alien".
This will return details on several movies, including Aliens[1]
Note: if the title begins with A or The, leave it out. If you're
determined to include it, then put ', A' or ', The' at the end of
the of the substring e.g.
Enforcer, The
Gauntlet, The
Searching is case insensitive.
search menu[2] Fun and Games page[3] COMMA home page[4]
FIND <keywords>, 1-5, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more,
or Help: three musketeers
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You find that there have been six film versions of the story:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie Info
Here are the results from the search for "three musketeers"
Three Musketeers, The (1921)[1]
Three Musketeers, The (1933)[2]
Three Musketeers, The (1935)[3]
Three Musketeers, The (1939)[4]
Three Musketeers, The (1948)[5]
Three Musketeers, The (1974)[6]
search menu[7] Fun and Games page[8] COMMA home page[9]
Rob.H[10]
Robert.Hartill@cm.cf.ac.uk
FIND <keywords>, 1-10, Back, Up, Quit, or Help: 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You decide to look for more information on the 1921 version:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Movie Info
Here are the results from the search for "Three Musketeers, The (1921)"
THREE MUSKETEERS, THE (1921)
1921
Cast Belcher, Charles[1] ......Bernajoux
De Brulier, Nigel[2] ......Cardinal Richelieu
De La Motte, Marguerite[3] ......Constance Bonacieux
Fairbanks, Douglas[4] ......D'Artagnan
Irwin, Boyd[5] ......Comte de Rochefort
MacLaren, Mary[6] ......Queen Anne of Austria
Menjou, Adolphe[7] ......Louis XIII
Pallette, Eugene[8] ......Aramis
Poff, Lon[9] ......Father Joseph
Siegmann, George[10] ......Porthos
Stevens, Charles[11] ......Planchet
Directed by Niblo, Fred[12]
Music by Gottschalk, Louis F.[13]
1-21, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help: 7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You're hooked! You decide to look for more information on Adolphe
Menjou, search more titles, find Oscar winners, etc.
3.6. Learning more about World-Wide Web
World-Wide Web is being developed at CERN (European Particle Physics
Laboratory) by the World-Wide Web team leaded by Tim Berners-Lee. Bug
reports, comments, suggestions, etc. should be mailed to:
www-bug@info.cern.ch
On-line documentation is available from info.cern.ch, for anonymous
FTP or using the remote WWW client.
Mailing lists: www-talk@info.cern.ch
To subscribe send a mail to www-talk-request@info.cern.ch
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.www
4. WAIS
4.1. What is WAIS
WAIS, Wide Area Information Server, is a distributed information
retrieval system. It helps users search databases over networks using
an easy-to-use interface. The databases (called sources) are mostly
collections of text-based documents, but they may also contain sound,
pictures or video as well. Databases on topics ranging from
Agriculture to Social Science can be searched with WAIS.
The databases may be organized in different ways, using various
database systems, but the user isn't required to learn the query
languages of the different databases. WAIS uses natural language
queries to find relevant documents. The result of the query is a set
of documents which contain the words of the query: no semantic
information is extracted from the query.
4.2. Who can use WAIS WAIS uses the client-server model to provide access to databases. You must be on the international TCP/IP network (the Internet) in order to use a client on your computer to access WAIS. If you have e-mail access only, or if you are not on the Internet you can still exploit some of the potential of WAIS. An e-mail interface is available at the address: waismail@quake.think.com which gives e-mail access to WAIS databases (see E-mail access section under Using WAIS below). 4.3. How to get to WAIS There are many WAIS servers throughout the network. A directory-of-servers database is available at several sites. You can address a query to it, e.g., to find out what databases are available on a particular subject. This database is also available via anonymous FTP from Think.com in the directory /wais as file wais-sources.tar.Z. If you do not have access to a WAIS client, (at least) two demonstration sites are available to allow you to get acquainted with WAIS. You can telnet to: +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | quake.think.com (login: wais) | | sunsite.unc.edu (login: swais) | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ The two demonstration sites above run swais (Screen WAIS), a simple WAIS client for Unix. 4.4. Using WAIS There are many freely available client software programs for various operating systems (Unix, VMS, MVS, MS-DOS, OS/2 and Macintosh) and for specific environments (GNU Emacs, X-Windows, Openlook, Sunview, NeXT, and MS-Windows). See the list of freely available client software in Appendix A. The client interface differs slightly on different platforms. However, the queries are performed in the same way, whatever the interface.
* Step 1: The user selects a set of databases to be searched from
among the available databases.
* Step 2: The user formulates a query by giving keywords to be
searched for.
* Step 3: When the query is run, WAIS asks for information from each
selected database.
* Step 4: Headlines of documents satisfying the query are displayed.
The selected documents contain the requested words and phrases.
Selected documents are ranked according to the number of matches.
* Step 5: To retrieve a document, the user simply selects it from the
resulting list.
* Step 6: If the response is incomplete, the user can state the
question differently or feed back to the system any one or more of
the selected documents he finds relevant.
* Step 7: When the search is run again, the results will be updated
to include documents which are similar to the ones selected,
meaning documents which share a large number of common words.
4.4.1. E-mail access:
You can query WAIS databases and retrieve documents by sending
commands in the body part of an e-mail message to
waismail@quake.think.com. The Subject: line is ignored. The important
commands are (a vertical bar (|) indicates a choice of parameters):
help
to get the help file
maxres number
to set the maximum number of results to be returned.
search source-name | "source-name1 source-name2 ..." keywords
where:
source-name
is a source name as found in the directory-of-servers (with or
without the .src ending). Use double-quotes (") to group
several sources to be searched.
keywords
are the words you would normally type into a query.
You may specify several search requests in a mail message. If you
don't know what sources you can search, just try anything. If the
source name is not recognised, you'll get a list of sources.
retrieve docid
to retrieve a document from a database. docid is a DocID as
returned by a search above. You may put more than one retrieval
request in a mail message, but you must leave a blank line between
requests. The docid must be written exactly as returned by a
search request, including any spaces. You can retrieve non-text
documents as well as text. If the document is of type TEXT or WSRC
you will get the result directly. Other types will be UUENCODED.
DocID: docid
same as retrieve. This form is identical to the form which is
returned by a search request. It makes it easy to use the reply
mail function to retrieve results.
4.5. Examples
When you log in to the demonstration site at quake.think.com, you
have immediate access to the directory-of-servers database via the
swais client software. To find recipes using papaya, you would select
the recipes database and give papaya as the keyword. Here are the
results of the search:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# Score Source Title Lines
001: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Dawn's Muffins, Pt III 339
002: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Muffins 3 632
003: 1000 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pineapple 678
004: 750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Pork and Papaya Salad 33
005: 750 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Bread 681
006: 500 (recipes) roder@cco. Re: NONFAT BAKERY COLLECTION 423
007: 500 (recipes) shiva@hoss Re: Juice Recipes 65
008: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Prawn Salad 49
009: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: COLLECTION: Lots of Avoca 447
010: 250 (recipes) mecca@acsu Re: REQUEST: blender-made fru 29
011: 250 (recipes) Ann.Adamci Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made 38
012: 250 (recipes) patth@Pani Re: Re: REQUEST: blender-made 49
013: 250 (recipes) arielle@ta Re: Avocados 459
014: 250 (recipes) red_trek@d Re: VEGAN: red beans and rice 78
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You can then select any of the above documents for viewing, for
example, the Pork and Papaya Salad recipe:
----------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes From: arielle@taronga.com (Stephanie da Silva) Subject: Pork and Papaya Salad Message-ID: <5BBP2SB@taronga.com> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1993 06:51:47 GMT Lines: 23 1/4 cup dried currants 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup walnut oil 1/4 cup chicken broth 1 tablespoon honey 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 pound cooked boneless pork loin roast 1 head Belgian endive Bibb lettuce leaves 2 papayas, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise 2 avocados, seeded, peeled and sliced lengthwise 1/4 cup broken walnut pieces In a small bowl pour enough boiling water over currants to cover. Let stand 5 minutes; drain. For dressing, in a screw-top jar combine vinegar, oil, chicken broth, honey, and cinnamon. Cover; shake well. Trim fat from pork; slice thinly. Separate leaves of Belgian endive. Line 6 salad plates with lettuce leaves. Arrange pork, endive, papaya, and avocado on plates. Sprinkle with currants and walnuts. Drizzle dressing over salads. Stephanie da Silva arielle@taronga.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you give more than one keyword, then all documents containing any of the keywords will be listed. 4.6. Learning more about WAIS A bibliography of documents, services and sources for WAIS is maintained by Barbara Lincoln Brooks of WAIS Inc. The bibliography is available from ftp.wais.com in the directory /pub/wais-inc-doc along with many other WAIS documents. There are currently four main FTP sites for WAIS documentation and software:
* ftp.cnidr.org
* ftp.wais.com
* quake.think.com
* sunsite.unc.edu
For information on free WAIS software contact freewais@cnidr.org
Mailing list: wais-discussion@wais.com
To subscribe send a mail to wais-discussion-request@wais.com
Usenet newsgroup: comp.infosystems.wais
WAIS was developed at Thinking Machines Corporation.
(page 27 continued on part 2)