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On Wed, 10 May 1995, John Freed wrote:

> rex,
> 
> thanks for your informative comments on online-newspapers. at the risk of
> sounding like a total idiot, i have a question.
> 
> the unix stuff you're talking about needs data in a particular format,
> right? like when you talk about an SQL front-end, it needs the data stored
> in Oracle or Sybase format, or the like. similarly, WAIS requires its own
> format, no?

Actually, the CGI interface takes "Forms" written in HTML3 format and 
sends them to the server which sends them to an agent which converts them 
into a standard sql query.  When the response comes back, the response is 
reformatted into HTML3.

WAIS engines can format ASCII text into HTML on the inbound, or the 
outbound stream.  Since WAIS can ignore insignificant words, you just 
make sure that the HTML tags are on the ignore list.  The commercial 
version can actually parce the tags and provide both relational and free 
text indices and selection choices.

> anyway, i've got lots of data in .DBF format, wondering what I should do
> with it. i want to put it on a server (i've got access to either our HTTP
> server or a Novell server) and give access to people in house (so Novell
> would be OK) through a forms-based system.

Let your HTTP server handle the agent.  The agent would then query this 
database.

> i'm guessing the easiest solution would be to write the stuff directly as a
> FoxPro app, but i'd really like to standardize on HTTP (for future _outside_
> access at least!) if possible.

Look at:
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Gateways.html

> i would greatly appreciate any thoughts you have in this area.
> 
> thanks,
> 
> ------------------------------------------------
> John Freed           jfreed@nytimes.com

	Rex Ballard
	Standard & Poor's/McGraw-Hill
	Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
	the Management of the McGraw-Hill Companies.

From rballard@cnj.digex.net Thu May 11 22:43:22 1995