Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 06:32:34 -0500

From: Natalie Maynor maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RA.MSSTATE.EDU

Subject: Re: Archiving Question



I wonder if I could float one more suggestion and then I'll shut up. Is there any way we could hook

up some kinda search engine tool of our own directly to the archives, so that WE could search them

from the home page? That's all I want, is to be able to search those (ever-growing) archives. This



The fact that searchable databases exist at various sites leads me to

believe that the answer to your question is yes. But I don't have any

idea of the technical details. I assume they involve writing some kind

of search program. I meanwhile still haven't even gotten around to

learning how to write perl scripts, which means I'm still compiling our

ftp/gopher/web archives manually every morning.



Soon we need to discuss what to do about next year (starting in late

April '97) when I'm not going to be able to do these daily net tasks.

Here's a quick list of changes that need to be made sometime within the

next several months:



(1) Can one of you take over as listowner of ADS-L? You can either do

it permanently or do it temporarily until I return in May '98.



(2) What should we do about updating the web pages and other files?

(Do any of you ever use the ftp files, btw? We might not need them

anymore.) Because maintaining these files requires an account on a

machine here at MSU and because there's a university policy prohibiting

non-MSU-related people from having accounts, there's no way that any

other ADSer could simply take over and maintain the files. That means

that the options seem to be (a) Moving everything to another site --

wherever one of you could take over and become our webmaster/gopher

keeper/etc., (b) Putting a message on the web page and at the top of

the first gopher and ftp pages saying that the material will not be

updated between April 1997 and May 1998, (c) Putting a link on the primary

web page to another site where one of you is adding new info while I'm

gone (e.g., if one of you might be willing to take over for a year but

not forever). Are there other solutions?



(3) If any of you know perl scripting, could you write a script that

would automate these tasks that I do every morning:

-- get the ADS-L digest out of mail and save it with previous day's date

as its name

-- edit out the unnecessary headers

-- move the edited file to the gopher directory and the ftp directory

(I would need to tell you the paths, of course)

-- make a .cap file for the gopher file (if you've never maintained

gopher files, I could tell you exactly what a .cap file is)

Then at the end of each month I compile all the daily files into one

file for the month and move them to the appropriate directories (the

parent directories of where the daily files live), making another .cap

file for the new gopher file, of course. I used to have to change the

ADS-L page in the web documents every month also, but then I changed it

to go into the gopher directory at a level that keeps me from having to

change ads-l.html every month. All I have to do is change it once a

year.



I know I'm forgetting things, but it seems to be turn-off-computer

time again.

--Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)



P.S. Yes, everything I've mentioned could be done by telnet from Japan,

which is where I'll be for the year. No, I can't do that. I will be

paying by the minute for online time and for the phone call to connect

with the ISP and therefore need to keep the time I spend on net activities

as short as possible. I will also be traveling off and on throughout the

year.