Welcome to WAIS! This is the main distribution site for WAIS software. Some other releases are maintained at other sites (see the announcement below). Z39.50 archives are kept in the Z3950 subdirectory. The archives to mailing lists are in /pub/wais/*@quake.think.com -brewster and the wais crew Brewster Kahle Thinking Machines Corporation Brewster@Think.com 1010 El Camino Real Project Leader Menlo Park, CA 94025 Wide Area Information Servers 415-329-9300x228 New Unix Internet Release (Beta 3 Release) Available September 16, 1991 Thank you for the interest in WAIS. The servers on Quake (including the directory of servers) has 70k requests from over 1100 different hosts all over the world (18 countries) in a couple of months. There are now 70 servers including one in Norway, one in Australia, poetry, recipies, comp.sources, as well as a Connection Machine serving all sorts of things. There are are a few mailing lists on this subject that you might want to be on: wais-interest: only announcements like this (1 a month or so) wais-discussion: moderated mailings every 1 or 2 weeks. Good stuff including all on wais-interest. wais-talk: unmoderated for implementors and interactive discussions. Requests to wais--request@think.com. Archives available from wais server: wais-discussion or anonymous ftp from quake.think.com. A bibliography of available written materials and resources is available from /pub/wais/wais-discussion/bibliography.txt@quake.think.com (ftp) or WAIS server wais-discussion-archive.src, or on request from Barbara@think.com. Jonathan Goldman pulled the most recent release together (with help from developers all over the world, see below): Highlights of modifications (see the release for the full report) Overall: make it more portable, and small enhancements Thank you to all that have contributed bug reports and suggestions. There are no concrete plans for the next release. Overview of components: In this release is source code for: * Server code: There is code to index text and picture files. * Protocol code: based on Z39.50-1988 using the internet. * Clients code: User interfaces for contacting servers * GNU emacs interface * simple shell interface * Mac interface (in separate WAIStation file) * tool kit for making your own interfaces * X interface * Directory of servers: This is be a network service that lists existing servers and how to contact them. * A Connection Machine server with some patent information, the CIA factbook, and some Biomedical abstracts, info-mac, risks, etc to serve as example servers. Other components available elsewhere: NeXT release: /wais/WAIStation-NeXT-1.0.tar.Z@think.com Telnet access: telnet quake.think.com login wais DOS: /pub/wais/UNC/wais-dos*@samba.oit.unc.edu Motif: /public/wais/motif-a1.tar.Z@think.com IBM RS6000: /pub/misc/wais-8-b2-dist.tar.Z@ans.net SunView: /pub/wais/sunsearch.src.*.tar.Z@samba.oit.unc.edu VMS: /pub/wais/vms*@samba.oit.unc.edu The public servers that are currently advertized are: Biology: biology-journal-contents.src biosci.src Molecular-biology.src Usenet and internet archives: comp.graphics.src comp.admin.src comp.db.src comp.emacs.src comp.multi.src comp.archives.src rec.pets.src comp.sources.src usenet-science.src user-contrib-cookbook.src usenet-cookbook.src homebrew.src info-mac.src sun-spots.src Frequently Asked Questions: NeXT.FAQ.src unix.FAQ.src ibm.pc.FAQ.src mac.FAQ.src Connection Machine info: CM-applications.src CM-tech-summary.src CM-fortran-manual.src CM-paris-manual.src CM-star-lisp-docs.src CMFS-documentation.src Books: jargon.src bible.src koran.src sample-books.src MIT-algorithms-bug.src MIT-algorithms-exercise.src MIT-algorithms-suggest.src Libraries: online-libraries.src tmc-library.src Misc: open_systems_calendar.src matrix_news.src astro-images-gif.src astro-images-fits.src nsf-bulletins.src midi.src unimelb-research.src (Australia!) supreme-ct.src NIH-Guide.src UNTComputerDoc.src US-Gov-Programs.src UiO_Publications.src (Norway!) cosmic-abstracts.src cosmic-programs.src directory-of-servers.src eff-documents.src eff-talk.src empire.src empire20.src internet-documents.src internet-drafts.src internet-resource-guide.src internet-rfcs.src patent-sampler.src poetry.src risks-digest.src sample-pictures.src unix-manual.src wais-discussion-archives.src wais-docs.src wall-street-journal-sample.src weather.src world-factbook.src The first "Digital Librarians", I think it would be safe to say are the maintainers of these servers: Geir.Pedersen@use.uio.no abc@banjo.concert.net ang@theory.lcs.mit.edu art@think.com billy@unt.edu biosci@genbank.bio.net brewster@think.com chris@cosmic1.cosmic.uga.edu fullton@lambada.oit.unc.edu ephraim@think.com gordon@think.com jcurran@nnsc.nsf.net jonathan@think.com jsq@tic.com root@next2.oit.unc.edu rvc@ariel.its.unimelb.EDU.AU uriw@microworld.media.mit.edu wais@eff.org wais@talon.UCS.ORST.EDU waisp@quake.think.com weather-server@quake.think.com The release is available from Think.com via anonymous FTP in /public/wais/wais-8-b3.tar.Z and WAIStation-0-62.sit.hqx. Bugs to bug-wais@think.com or to me. For the bug fixes, thanks to: Garrett A. Wollman Simon E Spero kent@parc.xerox.com, Michael Haberler (mah@parrot.prv.univie.ac.at) and to gcardwel@uci.edu for bug fixes to the last release. -brewster and the wais crew "Paper and flesh are fleeting media for the treasures that are ideas." Brewster Kahle Thinking Machines Corporation Brewster@Think.com 1010 El Camino Real Project Leader Menlo Park, CA 94025 Wide Area Information Servers 415-329-9300x228