Re: "Z39.50 Server List" DTD

I'm glad to hear tht others are dubious on end-running EXPLAIN.  EXPLAIN is
supported beautifully by RMIT (Australia), in their SIM (Structured
Information Manager- http://www.simdb.com).

Allow me to add a line of rant:

It's time software bit the bullet and got on with implementing this, instead
of cobbling together a set of work-arounds that furnish a perfect analogy to
the inconsitent and frequently proprietarily bloated HTML that browsers
inconsistently supported from one vendor to another throughout HTML's
'growth.'  As long as the sole few ZIG folks continue to find workarounds,
no company is going to build a decent EXPLAIN system besides RMIT -- we'll
all be stuck the the intolerable vapor-ware and shoddy crud made by
Endeavor, for instance.

jr



----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Waldstein" <wald@library.ho.lucent.com>
To: <www-zig@w3.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 1:13 PM
Subject: Re: "Z39.50 Server List" DTD


>
>
> > Review of the discussion in San Antonio:  We need a mechanism for a
client to
> > dynamically discover Z39.50 servers. We briefly considered
"broadcasting" and
> > "robots", but these ideas were passed over in favor of a  simpler
mechanism, a
> > "distributed Z-directory".  The approach is to define a structure that a
Z39.50
> > server may include within the Init response -- an otherInfo item that
points the
> > client to one or more servers. The client may then initiate associations
with
> > these servers, possibly for the sole purpose of discovering more
servers,
>
> I tried to avoid commenting - given that I wasn't at the meeting, nor am
> willing to read the minutes (sorry). But this bothers me.  What I
understand
> is my init may get back a complete list of all the servers/databases in
> the world, unsolicited, assuming the server wants to.  Yuck.
>
>   Why is more and more being dropped in init - because EXPLAIN is still
not
> being implemented?  I have already had one server blow out my client cause
> they upped the buffer size to send me a large init - full of stuff I don't
> want and will ignore.
>
>   Re the discovery being discussed above - assuming you don't want to use
> EXPLAIN, I would say don't use z39.50;  how about every HTTP server in the
> world have a http://server/z39.50databases.txt -- okay, not serious; but
not
> happy with the init solution (don't care about the XML issues).
>
>   You may take this as an uninformed rant, but really doesn't seem like
> a good idea to me of adding this discovery info to potentially every
Z39.50
> init...
>     bob
> --
> Robert K. Waldstein                Email: wald@lucent.com
> Bell Laboratories, Room 3D-591     Phone: (908) 582-6171
> 600 Mountain Avenue
> Murray Hill, New Jersey  07974
>

Received on Wednesday, 21 June 2000 13:40:57 UTC