From: jlohrmann@igc.apc.org
Subject: Using WAIS to get Political Speeches
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 22:51:10 GMT

From: Paul Jones <pjones@mento.oit.unc.edu>

As mentioned in earlier messages, we've indexed the Clinton and Bush
speeches so that you can search them by key words. What follows is a brief
tutorial that tells you how you can try WAIS out for searching the
speeches. You don't have to have WAIS just telnet to SunSITE.unc.edu and
login as swais (but give the brief tutorial a read first).

WAIS - The Wide Area Information Server

WAIS is pronounced "ways", and was developed at Thinking Machines
Corporation.

WAIS is a database system that exploits two recently popularised
computer science concepts: the client-server model, and full-text
databases.  It gives the ability for users to search existing
databases of articles, books, references, abstracts and specialist
information (such as genome databases, usenet group archives, ftp-site
listings, etc), and for people with information to publish it at
little expense and effort over the Internet.

The client-server model is a commonly used method of providing
services over a network.  The end-user uses a client program to access
information by communicating with a server program.  Typically the
server and client are running on different machines and communicate
over the network.  You need not have a server of your own to be able
to use the client.

The full-text database is a model designed explicitly to search
documents on any word that appears in those documents.  The old
approach was to have a set of keywords which you could search on, and
these words represented a small subset of all the words in the
documents.

It is the WAIS client that lets you search databases.  Databases are
provided over networks by WAIS servers.  Servers are available to run
under System V and BSD releases of Unix, VMS, the IBM RS/6000, and the
NeXT.  Client software is available for dumb terminal Unix, curses on
Unix, GNU Emacs, Macintosh (with MacTCP), the NeXT, MS-DOS machines
with and without Windows, as well as VMS, RS/6000, X Windows, Motif
and Sunview.

The fundamental concepts in WAIS are the database, the document, the
source and the hit.  A source is a short text file that describes how
a client can access a database that is provided by a server.  It
typically lists the database name, the machine the server program is
running on, a brief description of the database, the name of the
maintainer of the database, and the cost (if any).

A document is the basic unit - when you perform a search and look at
results, you will be looking at documents.  Databases hold lots of
documents, and the server will search all the documents in the
database.  When the server finishes the search, it sends the client a
list of hits - the names of documents that looked like they matched
what you were searching for.  A hit is one document name.

To try out WAIS, without compiling anything, you have to be on the
Internet.  The following is a brief guide to the curses-based Unix client. 
Telnet to SunSITE.unc.edu and log in as "swais" (do not type the quotation
marks).  You will not need a password. You will then be connected to a
client program, and will be presented with a list of names of databases to
search (each name of a database corresponds to a source). 

You can move through the list of sources with the j and k keys.  The
question mark (?) key gives you help.  To search for a word in the
database names, use the / key.  Once on the source to search (for
instance, SunSITE.unc.edu offers the "clinton-speeches" database) press
Return and you will be asked for keywords to search on.  Enter the
keywords, separated by spaces (for instance, "free trade economy", without
quotation marks, would search for the words free, trade and economy).

The client then gives you a list of hits - the names of documents that
match your request.  You can move through the list with the same
commands as before.  To view a document, press Return when the name of
the document is highlighted.  Press H for help while viewing the
document.  Press 'q' to leave from the list of documents.

If you want to compile the wais client software on your local machine,
the source is available from SunSITE.unc.edu - see the article on using
anonymous FTP for help.  Full source for all clients and servers are
available, and the programs may be moved to more operating systems.
The source code is in the public domain, for anybody who wants to
improve, adapt or port the code.
--end

Nat
(gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz -- Nathan Torkington -- is the electronic text and
 MS-DOS archivist for the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
==============================================
       Paul Jones
       Office FOR Information Technology
       University of North Carolina
       Chapel Hill, NC
       Paul_Jones@unc.edu
 Self-determination for Kernow, Alba, Cymru, Eire, Mannin, and Breizh


Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive