[408] in World Wide Web
Re: pointers to TechInfo
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (brlewis@MIT.EDU)
Wed Sep 14 17:07:58 1994
From: brlewis@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 17:06:48 -0400
To: tritan@MIT.EDU
Cc: webmaster@MIT.EDU, www@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <9409141832.AA29530@toxicwaste.media.mit.edu> (tritan@MIT.EDU)
From: tritan@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 14:32:59 EDT
Cc: webmaster@MIT.EDU
We actually don't add in information from techinfo on our activities
page; we'd prefer that Tech Talk create a real html page.
I'm not clear on this policy. Is it to say requests to add a link for
an activity must come from that activity, or is it to say you don't like
non-HTML TechInfo? (You can put HTML documents in TechInfo).
Let me see if I can find your policy page so I can get my question
cleared up.
Hmm...nothing directly on the activities page. But maybe there's a link
somewhere below it that will point me to the policy page. I'll just do
an outline. Oops! Can't do it. That's a TechInfo feature.
Hmm...maybe the webmasters have attached the keyword "policy" to their
policy page. That'll make it easy. Oops! Can't do it. That's a
TechInfo feature.
Hmm...well, at least there's full-text indexing. Oops! None of the
info on the sipb server is indexed, to my knowledge. All the documents
in TechInfo are full-text indexed nightly.
Hmm...the "Registering an Activity" page seems to contain information
that's vaguely related to policy. Perhaps if I look at all the paths to
"Registering an Activity" from the home page I'll find a page that deals
with different policies regarding providing information. Oops! Can't
do it. "Paths" is a TechInfo feature.
Hmm...I'm left with my last resort. Get an address for the provider of
the Activities page and ask my question via email. There's no guarantee
the document will contain one. Unlike TechInfo, web documents can be
anonymous. But this time, I'm in luck! This page has webmaster@mit.edu
at the bottom.
My point is, TechInfo is not evil. It has features that httpd just
doesn't have yet and probably won't have for a couple years. People who
put their information in TechInfo are doing a smart thing, especially if
they put HTML info there. Your documents are automatically full-text
indexed, relative links don't break if you restructure your
information, and people can always find out the owner/modify date of
your document.
I'm sure you're still repulsed out by the idea of making a pointer to a
TechInfo menu, so let me continue.
Free-form HTML is very flexible. You can really do anything you want.
It's like a blank sheet of paper. You may notice, however, that some of
the pieces of paper you write on in the course of your day already have
ink on them, e.g. lines on a notebook sheet or boxes on an office form.
This added structure helps you use the paper more effectively.
In the same way, the structure of a TechInfo menu can help many
information providers do their thing more effectively. CWIS-type
information is usually in small chunks that you can group together in a
menu. Menus are usually fairly navigable if you have TechInfo's
search/outline/path features (not so navigable in gopher).
So if somebody from the news office *does* ask you to put in a link to
their TechInfo menu, don't wrinkle your nose or make gagging motions.
Bruce
