Approved-By:  Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Wed, 9 Sep 1992 15:26:28 CDT
From:         George Brett <ghb@concert.net>
Subject:      Re: Wais Protocols

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
In article <PACS-L%92090410010969@UHUPVM1.BITNET> Public-Access Computer
Systems Forum, Dirk Herr-Hoyman  writes:

>From: (Dirk Herr-Hoyman) <dhoyman@fammed.wisc.edu>
>Subject: Re: Fully WAIS indexed speeches
>
>>  Would someone mind helping a rookie? What exactly is a WAIS protocol?
>>(Even though I can't use it, running a humble antique Apple...)

	Actually you can use your old Apple ][. If you use a
telecommunications package like Kermit, you can connect a host that
has a vt100 based WAIS client. This client is often known as Simple
WAIS or swais. I just used swais to find the Z39.50 document I'll talk
about later.

>
>You probably got bombarded, but let me add my 2 cents.

	I'd like to add a couple more pennies here. Thanks.

>
>WAIS stands for Wide Area Information Systems.  Basically, this means you
>have a client/server lookup via wide area networks, like the Internet.  So,
>I run a WAIS client on my local computer and the query is sent out to some
>other computer on the Internet.

	Dirk, you are partially correct. WAIS is a system, but it stands for
the Wide Area Information Server. According to Brewster Kahle this is
an electronic publishing system that consists of clients, servers, and
the underlying protocol.

	There are clients now for most of the popular platform operating
systems: Macintosh, MS-DOS and MS Windows, Unix (eg. vt100, GNUemacs,
and X-Windows), as well as VMS.

	The servers run mostly on Unix hardware although they can be found on
VMS systems as well. There is some interest in developing WAIS servers
for MS-DOS and Macintosh to run within Novell or AppleShare environments.

	The underlying protocol was initially based in large part on the
1988 version of the Z39.50 protocol. Recent work at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill has developed a 1992 compliant WAIS
server and client. For more information about Z39.50 you may want to
begin with "The Z39.50 Protocol: Questions and Answers," by Clifford
Lynch. This brief document has been reprinted by a number of library
automation vendors such as Data Research Associates (DRA).  You can
also download an old version of this document via anonymous ftp
from quake.think.com in the directory wais/wais-discussion
the file is issue-4.text  (note: I found this document using simple
WAIS, swais, and searching the wais-discussion-archives server for
Z39.50 and Protocol.)

>
>Now, there's a little more to WAIS then just querying.  WAIS is able to do
>full text retrival and supports graphics/sound and other multimedia
>formats.  The WAIS protocol is currently become an "official" standard.
>Right now it's called z39.50, but that number may change when it's
>official.  A company in Boston that specializes in large, parallel
>processing computers, Thinking Machines, has been spearheading WAIS.

	WAIS will indeed retrieve information in more than plain text form.
However, be warned that the Apple IIe and other computers using the
vt100 WAIS client will not be able to see much more than plain text.
Also, there are other binary files that my Macintosh can not read or
display. The bottom line here is that you can retrieve and display a
great variety of file types, but they must be supported by the platform,
operating system, and applications on the client system.

	RE: Z39.50 see my remarks above.

>
>WAIS appears to have the critical mass needed to be useful.  I have seen
>lot's of interest in it of late.

	Yes, there is international interest in WAIS. The last time I
counted there were 285 published WAIS servers from all over the world.
Topics range from the CIA world fact book to zymurgy with many point
in between.

>
>If you want a more thorough discussion, Byte had a good article just about
>a year ago (I can't recall the month).

	Or you can use anonymous ftp to retrieve documents from
quake .think.com in the directory wais.

	I hope that this has been helpful. Let me know if I can be of
assistance with other questions.


----

George Brett
The Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery & Retrieval
Center for Communications, MCNC
POB 12889 / 3021 Cornwallis Rd. - RTP, NC 27709-2889
tel. 919-248-1886 fax. 919-248-1405  ghb@jazz.concert.net

---
George H. Brett II
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
Center for Communications - MCNC
POB12889 / 3021 Cornwallis Road, RTP, NC 27709-2889
tel. 919-248-1886 fax. 919-248-1405  ghb@concert.net
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