Organization: Contract to CSC, Victoria Uni, Wellington, New Zealand
Apparently-To: bit-listserv-pacs-l@uunet.uu.net
Approved-By:  "(News Admin)" <news@COMP.VUW.AC.NZ>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Tue, 6 Oct 1992 10:21:05 CDT
Comments:     Warning -- original Sender: tag was news@COMP.VUW.AC.NZ
From:         "(Nathan Torkington)" <gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz>
Subject:      Re: Wais and Gopher

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Here's an introduction to WAIS that I wrote a while ago.  As usual,
this is *my* work, and the copyright for it rests with me.  Non-profit
use is ok, but please contact me before using in a book/etc. (ha,
that's real likely :-).  I hope it is of some use to you.  I hope to
be writing one about gopher soon.

This is due to appear in Project Gutenberg's "Child's Garden of the
Internet", and as such has the format of a "ten minute tutorial".

--begin
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 quake.think.com and log in as "wais" (do not type
the quotation marks).  You will not need a password.  Then type in
your e-mail address and enter your terminal type (most will be vt100).
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, wais.cic.net offers the "roget-thesaurus" database) press
Return and you will be asked for keywords to search on.  Enter the
keywords, separated by spaces (for instance, "amusement game", without
quotation marks, would search for the words amusement and game).

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 ftp.think.com - 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)
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU