[1415] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
RE: Incompatibility Among Library Catalogs - NOT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mulliner@ouvaxa.ucls.ohiou.edu)
Wed Oct 7 15:50:21 1992
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 14:40:05 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: mulliner@ouvaxa.ucls.ohiou.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Ohio University Electronic Communication
From: Kent Mulliner Dept: Library
MULLINER Tel No: 614-593-2707
Subject: RE: Incompatibility Among Library Catalogs - NOT
CBush <$L$LB3G%LUCCPUA.BitNet Writes:
>Could somebody out there please explain IN THE SIMPLEST TERMS
>POSSIBLE why there is incompatibility among library catalogs
>even though they are on the internet. I telnet from a mainframe
>on either a PC using a gateway or on a dumb terminal and get
garbage characters when connected to Cornell or Vanderbilt.
Without claiming to be an expert, the incompatibility
isn't among library systems but among platforms and emulations.
You need to emulate IBM's old 3270 terminal.
Ed Krol's new THE WHOLE INTERNET USER'S GUIDE & CATALOG
addresses this (pp. 54-58). Without great detail, rather than
using "telnet", you need a counterpart, TN3270. If you
TN3270 to Cornell, there is no problem.
> I can
>sort of grasp the fact the UNIX and MVS would have a difficult time
>communicating (they way Macintoshes and IBM PC can't "talk" easily)
>but shouldn't two IBM mainframes even though they have different
>operating systems be able to "talk" to each other. If not why
>hasn't the appropriate gateway or interface been built into
>the OS?
So the problem isn't the OS, but how you talk to it.
Yale, for example (which like CORNELL is running a NOTIS system),
offers a Telnet address and a TN3270 (according to HYTELNET), but
I've only had luck with the 3270.
Why ask that the gateway or interface be built-in?
It's simply a question of using the right key. Do I complain
that all automobiles don't use the same brand or octane of
gasoline. I'm all for simplifying the process to open the
net to more people but railing against long-standing
incompatibilities and misattributing them at that won't help.
Nor, do I think that some kludge to overcome them is
necessarily the answer. Certainly, I have no right to
insist that CORNELL invest in a front-end because I want
to telnet rather than TN3270. 8>)
K. Mulliner, Ohio University Libraries
