Re: SV: Z39.50 on the web (and in print)

> >When I have 30+ databases on my machine, each of which has 20+ 
> >possible searches and another 20+ aliases for them, are you Really Sure 
> >you want all that info in one go?  Wouldn't you rather be able to search, 
> >scan and sort it like a regular database?

> and I would bounce this back to you - do you really want all those
> explain searches and Explain-RS records received as a the way to find
> out about a server - whats the difference ?  The whole mechanism

I'm not arguing pro full Explain, as I've already said, but the argument 
is almost the same, it just has the standard to back it up as well.

Because scan takes much less time to perform, typically, than parsing
several meg of XML.  Because maybe I already know the information but want
to see if the databases have been updated recently. Because I already have
the tools for search, scan and sort, and I don't have the tools for full
XML parsing. Because I want to find databases that support author search.  
Because I want an alphabetical list of databases. Because servers should
be able to handle large amounts of searches if they're used in a library.
Because ...

Because the server and the client -should already- have all of the above 
functionality.  If a client can't handle scan, then it's in serious need 
of an upgrade.

> the client still has to deal with the data. Do I really want to hang
> around waiting for the scanning/sorting to take place - no.

I don't about your server, but scan for us takes in the orders of
microseconds to perform and return. On the other hand when I'm dialed up I
certainly don't want to wait the several minutes while a couple of meg of 
XML gets downloaded.


Rob S

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Received on Monday, 25 February 2002 08:40:08 UTC