You have plain text files
If you have some plain text files then you can easily write, or generate using a script, a small hypertext file which points to them. To make them accessible you can use either anonymous FTP , or the HTTP daemon .
You have a NeXT
You can use our prototype hypertext editor to create a web of hypertext, linking it to existing files. This is not YET available for X11 workstations. This is a fast way of making online documentation, as well as performing the hyper-librarian job of making sure all your information can be found.
Using a shell script
An HTTP daemon is such a simple thing that a simple shell script will often suffice. This is great for bits of information available locally through other programs, which you would like to publish. More deatils on writing servers using shell scripts under unix , or in DCL under VMS .
You have many files
In this case, for speed of access, the HTTP daemon will probably be best. You can write a tree of hypertext in HTML linking the text files, or you can even generate the tree automatically from your directory tree. If you want to generate a full-text index, then you could use the public domain WAIS software - your data will then be accessible (as plain text, not hypertext) through the WAIS gateway .
You have an existing information base
If you have a maintained base of information, don't rush into changing the way you manage it. A "gateway" W3 server can run on top of your existing system, making the information in it available to the world. This is how it works:
- Menus map onto sets of hypertext links
- Different search options map onto different "index" document addresses (even if they use the same index underneath in your system).
- Procedures used by those who contribute and manage information stay unaltered.
Making a W3 server for existing data.
Tim BL