Hello all freeWAIS-sf users (and not yet freeWAIS-sf users) out there!

I have invested by far more time I intended to, to make freeWAIS-sf
stable and portable. To quote Larry Wall:

        "I have taken too much time from my employer, my family, my
        career and my health ..."

Now I have to focus my efforts on getting my PhD. Tung has to finish
his Diploma thesis.

Since freeWAIS-sf runs on many platforms now, *you all* can contribute
features for following releases. I will integrate new things, you sent
to me. We hope our child is grown up enough, to survive with this
reduced effort.

Among the features, which might be useful are:

X11/R6 Some might have noticed that the X clients do not (yet)
       compile with the new X11 release.
       
Compress Indexes

       There are several know methods for compressing inverted files
       which could save us *a bytes of disc space.

Spatial indexes

       Should not be there lots of GIS people, who could add spatial
       index structures?

Forms  (Notes from Doug Nebert)

       It seems to me that if the 0.2-sf crowd can consistently use
       the .fde file incorporated into the available .src file that a
       functionality like "explain" can be developed to allow the
       client to determine what attributes are being used and
       formulate a query window to match it. probably easier would be
       to have a "form" resource file which could be retrieved from
       the server (e.g. query.html) by a "smart" http client...

Relevance Feedback

       Notice, that the thing build in freeWAIS* is not "Relevance
       Feedback". It is more some kind of query expansion. Real
       Relevance Feedback is proved to produce much more effective
       ranking.


Compatibility
   WAIS

       Should the clients be modified, to know about sf capabilities
       and use free text search for dump original wais
       servers? Inquire functions (see Forms above) may be useful.

   Z39.50 (Notes from Doug Nebert)

       It seems that the functionality you have provided matches very
       well the basic abilities of Z39.50 V2 and V3 in terms of fields
       and search.  If there were a way to identify registered
       attributes then the construction of a gateway from ZDIST to an
       0.2-sf store of data would be possible, allowing people to keep
       their data in one format and serve the V1 and non V1
       communities.  


       My thoughts regarding a linkage between freeWAIS-0.2-sf and a
       full Z39.50 V2-3 release such as ZDIST were to provide a link
       into the new capabilities and other "compliant" clients out
       there. But I think much of the API work could be done with the
       help of CNIDR personnel -- their "linkage" back into
       freeWAIS-0.3 disabled some of the functionality whereas 0.2-sf
       is more on the same level of sophistication as V2 and should
       be easier to connect to.  If such a connection can be made it
       would allow you all to maintain and enhance the existing code
       and have some partners out here work on maintaining the API
       connection, taking the load off you except in consultation...

   HTTP
        
       A more radical approach: Should we invent a new protocol more
       like HTTP instead of the weird Z39.50 stuff?

Documentation

       Counting the mails I receive every day leads to the conclusion
       that there is a lack of documentation.

   document specs

       Many people have difficulties in building document
       specifications. Either there should be a nicer input format or
       someone should provide a compiler (+checking and testing?) for
       some prettier specification format.

   Gopher
       Using freeWAIS-sf and gopher seems to be a bit difficult.
     
So *you* are invited to volunteer for working on one of the above or
additional items.

Now it is  up to you to make freeWAIS-sf survive!

Ulrich
