There is now a WAIS (Wide Area Information Servers) server running
at the International AVS Center.  WAIS allows a user to ask
a question to a server, which provides a ranked list of documents
that may help answer that question.  The user can then peruse
through the documents that seem useful.  

All of the .txt files for AVS modules freely available on the 
International AVS Center's anonymous ftp site have been indexed, 
as well as informational files such as AVS_README and FAQ.  
WAIS should prove more and more useful as the AVS module repository
becomes larger.  It provides a convienient interface to large amounts
of data.

There is also an archive of comp.graphics.avs postings beginning
with May 1992 postings.

For example, I might be interested in JPEG files, so I might ask
the server the question: "Can I read or write JPEG files using AVS?"
A typical response from swais, a WAIS client that you could type
your question into, would be as shown below.  I could then select
any of these documents for viewing.

SWAIS                            Search Results                       Items: 40
  #    Score     Source                       Title                       Lines
001:   [1000] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  AVS_README   /src/avs/ftp/                 589
002:   [ 844] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  AVS_CATALOG   /src/avs/ftp/               2008
003:   [ 603] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  write_jpeg                                 459
004:   [ 592] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_jpeg                                  456
005:   [ 413] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  WHAT_IS_AVS   /src/avs/ftp/                290
006:   [ 380] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  FAQ   /src/avs/ftp/                        274
007:   [ 184] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_HDF_SDS                               198
008:   [ 184] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_abekas_                               116
009:   [ 178] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_tiff                                  225
010:   [ 173] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_shak                                  461
011:   [ 139] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_FLOW3D                                140
012:   [ 139] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_compres                                67
013:   [ 139] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_compres                                63
014:   [ 139] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  write_compres                               67
015:   [ 111] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  fast_animate                               109
016:   [ 106] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  animate_file                               177
017:   [ 100] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  write_abekas                                58
018:   [  89] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_16_bit_                                69
019:   [  89] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_sunras                                 63
020:   [  83] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  Image_Sequen                               219
021:   [  83] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  phoenics_int                                62
022:   [  83] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  write_irreg                                 58
023:   [  83] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  write_reg                                   58
024:   [  78] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  Keyframe_Ani                               777
025:   [  67] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  write_A60_yu                                44
026:   [  61] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  readFLOW3D                                  71
027:   [  55] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  Record_Anima                               301
028:   [  50] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_dyna3d                                 89
029:   [  50] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_gif                                    52
030:   [  50] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  cone                                        78
031:   [  44] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  field_conver                               132
032:   [  44] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  my_mirror                                   64
033:   [  44] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  new_crop                                   140
034:   [  44] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  3D_axis                                    174
035:   [  39] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  animate_floa                               274
036:   [  39] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  animate_inte                               274
037:   [  39] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  read_Dore_im                                24
038:   [  39] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  Iterate                                    128
039:   [  39] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  Stepper                                    115
040:   [  39] (  AVS_TXT_FILES)  collage                                     95

To get the WAIS client and server software, ftp to think.com,
login as anonymous, and get the compressed file wais/wais-8-b4.tar.Z.
In the same location, you can get a list of available sources from the
file wais-sources.tar.Z.  A "source" is a file needed by a WAIS client
(running on your local machine) to access a server running on a remote
(or local) machine.  

An overview of WAIS is provided below, in an article written by
Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines.  Brewster is the Project 
Leader of the WAIS project.


		 Overview of Wide Area Information Servers
			      Brewster Kahle
				April 1991


The Wide Area Information Servers system is a set of products supplied by
different vendors to help end-users find and retrieve information over
networks.  Thinking Machines, Apple Computer, and Dow Jones initially
implemented such a system for use by business executives.  These products
are becoming more widely available from various companies.

What does WAIS do?
	Users on different platforms can access personal, company, and
published information from one interface.  The information can be anything:
text, pictures, voice, or formatted documents.  Since a single
computer-to-computer protocol is used, information can be stored anywhere
on different types of machines.  Anyone can use this system since it uses
natural language questions to find relevant documents.  Relevent documents
can be fed back to a server to refine the search.  This avoids complicated
query languages and vendor specific systems.  Successful searches can be
automatically run to alert the user when new information becomes available.


How does WAIS work?   
	The servers take a users question and do their best to find
relevant documents.  The servers, at this point, do not "understand" the
users english language question, rather they try to find documents that
contain those words and phrases and ranks then based on heuristics.  The
user interfaces (clients) talk to the servers using an extension to a
standard protocol Z39.50.  Using a public standard allows vendors to
compete with each other, while bypassing the usual proprietary protocol
period that slows development.  Thinking Machines is giving away an
implementation of this standard to help vendors develop clients and
servers.

What WAIS servers exist?   
	Even though the system is very new, there are already several
servers: 
  * Dow Jones is putting a server on their own DowVision network.
This server contains the Wall Street Journal, Barons, and 450 magazines.
This is a for-pay server.  
  * Thinking Machines operates a Connection Machine on the internet for
free use.  The databases it supports are some patents, a collection of
molecular biology abstracts, a cookbook, and the CIA World Factbook.  
  * MIT supports a poetry server with a great deal of classical and
modern poetry.  Cosmic is serving descriptions of government software
packages.  The Library of Congress has plans to make their catalog
available on the protocol.  
  * Weather maps and forecasts are made available by Thinking Machines as a
repackaging of existing information.  
  * The "directory of servers" facility is operated by Thinking Machines so
that new servers can be easily registered as either for-pay or for-free
servers and users can find out about these services.

How can I find out more about WAIS?   
	Contact Brewster Kahle for more information on the WAIS project,
the Connection Machine WAIS system, or the free Mac, Unix Server, and X
Window System interfaces.  There is a mailing list that has weekly postings
on progress and new releases; to subscribe send and email note to
wais-discussion-request@think.com.

Brewster Kahle
Project Leader
Wide Area Information Servers
Brewster@Think.com

The source file you will need to access the International AVS Center's 
archive of the module text files is "avs-txt-files.src" (NOT including 
the lines with the asterisks):

************************avs-txt-files.src***********************
(:source
   :version  3
   :database-name "/usr1/avs/wais-sources/AVS_TXT_FILES"
   :cost 0.00
   :cost-unit :free
   :maintainer "avs@doppler.ncsc.org"
   :ip-address "128.109.178.23"
   :ip-name "doppler.ncsc.org"
   :tcp-port 210
   :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b4 on Apr 23 16:22:03 1992 by avs@doppler

        All of the .txt files for Application Visualization System
(AVS) modules freely available on the International AVS Center's
anonymous ftp site have been indexed, as well as informational
files such as AVS_README and FAQ.  The anonymous ftp site can be
accessed at avs.ncsc.org.

        Please send email to avsemail@ncsc.org for an automated reply
with information about the International AVS Center and how you can
make use of it.

        Please send questions for the International AVS Center to
avs@ncsc.org.
"
)
****************************************************************

The source file you will need to access the International AVS Center's 
archive of the postings to comp.graphics.avs is "cg_avs_files.src" 
(NOT including the lines with the asterisks):

************************cg_avs_files.src************************
(:source 
   :version  3 
   :database-name "/usr1/avs/wais-sources/cg_avs_files"
   :cost 0.00 
   :cost-unit :free 
   :maintainer "avs@doppler.ncsc.org"
   :ip-address "128.109.178.23"
   :ip-name "doppler.ncsc.org"
   :tcp-port 210
   :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b4 on Jun  6 10:35:11 1992 by avs@doppler

        An archive of postings to the newsgroup comp.graphics.avs
has been indexed, starting with May 1992 postings. 

        Please send email to avsemail@ncsc.org for an automated reply
with information about the International AVS Center and how you can
make use of it and our anonymous ftp site.

        Please send questions for the International AVS Center to
avs@ncsc.org.
"
)
****************************************************************
