Re: WWW: Local file handling

dcmartin@ckm.ucsf.edu (David C. Martin)
Message-id: <9305111723.AA25890@knowman.lib.ucsf.EDU>
From: dcmartin@ckm.ucsf.edu (David C. Martin)
Organization: UCSF Center for Knowledge Management
Email: dcmartin@ckm.ucsf.edu or uunet!dcmartin
Phone: 415/476-6111
Fax: 415/476-4653
To: "Peter Lister, Cranfield Computer Centre" <ccprl@xdm001.ccc.cranfield.ac.uk>
Cc: timbl@nxoc01.cern.ch, www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch, marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
In-reply-to: Your message of Tue, 11 May 93 17:16:32 +0000
	<9305111616.AA15294@xdm039> 
Subject: Re: WWW: Local file handling 
Date: Tue, 11 May 93 10:26:33 MDT
Sender: dcmartin@lib.ucsf.edu

I have been toying with a similar idea, how to keep track of documents
which you would like to have in a "hotlist," but are more numerous and
require more structure filing, e.g. like UNIX files in the filesystem.

What I have done is modify some code in gui2.c which allows local files
that are "opened" from the File "Open local..." menu item to be symbolic
links which point nowhere, but include the URL, e.g.

% ln -s http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/evl/cave/cave.html .

which creates the symbolic link cave.html.  The patch is quite simple
and is included.  There needs to be additional work done to allow the
user to specify the name on the command line, e.g.

% xmosaic cave.html

and have the additional test of a local symbolic link encoding a URL and
to the file browser to show such entries (it might be nice to even
identify such entries as URL's).

In addition, some consideration should be given for allowing a third
party, e.g. the LookingGlass software, to send a message to Mosaic
asking it to load a local file.

My $0.02.

dcm
--------
"Peter Lister, Cranfield Computer Centre" writes:

The discussion about local files prompts me to ask - how does one
distinguish between ones own local ftp area (which is what the outside
world sees when following a file URL), and the local file system
mounted under root (which is what a client program like xmosaic sees)?.
How do I refer to my own ftp area?

As far as I can see, no URL should refer to different mechanisms in
different contexts. Lets have ftp: (use ftp ONLY) and file: (local file
system ONLY, further use discouraged). I don't want an afs: URL,
because it's equivalent to file: if you're an AFS site, and useless if
you aren't. OK, AFS sites (we are one) can mount each others file
systems, but it's NOT a preferred method of allowing the world access
to info that we want to make public. 

Peter