WAIS show time...

["Robert Harper Finland", CSC]

    Ahhh... it brought joy to my old heart to see that Genbank had
    made the BioSci newsgroups into a source for WAIS. I suppose the
    rest of you are wondering what this is all about... and if you can
    untilize this service. 

    Eliot was so low keyed about his anouncement... so subdued... what
    a low profile for such an important event... no spotlights, or
    dancing girls to herald this new addition to the WAIS sources

    So once again I have to don my ring master's hat, crack my whip,
    and say "Ladies and gentlemen for your edification and
    entertainment let me present  to you the new star of stage and
    screen the one, the only, BIOSCI.SRC"

    I have xwais running on a Sparcstation. There is a programme
    called  "waissearch" which can be used to check remote hosts for
    sources.

	-h is the host name
	-d is the database name
	-p is the port

    So if I want to see what sources Genbank has I give to following
    command.

sun4 /ftp/staff-docs 21> waissearch -h genbank.bio.net -d INFO -p 210 tcp

and genbank will respond as follows:

Search Response:
  NumberOfRecordsReturned: 3

1: Score: 1000, lines:  33 'directory-of-servers.src   /gos/src/wais/wais-8-b
2: Score: 1000, lines:  13 'biosci.src   /gos/src/wais/wais-8-b1/wais-sources
3: Score: 1000, lines:  12 'INFO.src   /gos/src/wais/wais-8-b1/wais-sources/'

View document number [type 0 or q to quit]: 2

    As you can see there are 3 sources and the one that I am
    interested in is number 2. Since I want to get more information on
    the biosci.src I  then type in option 2 and I get all the facts on
    that source.

Headline: biosci.src   /gos/src/wais/wais-8-b1/wais-sources/
(:source
   :version  3
   :database-name "biosci"
   :ip-address "134.172.3.160"
   :ip-name "genbank.bio.net"
   :tcp-port 210
   :cost 0.00
   :cost-unit :free
   :maintainer "biosci-request at genbank.bio.net"
   :description "This database contains an archive of articles posted
    to the BIOSCI mailing lists and newsgroups since 1989.
    
    Now that I have this information I need to make it available to
    the WAISstation on my Sparc so I select NEW from under the SOURCES
    section of the WAISstation and I will then be presented with a new
    screen in which I can edit and add a NEW SOURCE.

    All that I need to do is add in the information that is listed
    under option 2... that is to say.

Name:biosci.src
Server:genbank.bio.net
Service:210
Database:biosci
Cost:0
Units:free
Maintainer:biosci-request at genbank.bio.net
Description:This database contains an archive of articles posted
to the BIOSCI mailing lists and newsgroups since 1989.

    That's it... very simple... and now you are ready to roll. When I
    now  open a Xwais session I can select biosci.src from the list of
    sources and then OPEN up a QUESTION session. The WAIS question
    window will open up and I can then choose the ADD SOURCE button
    and scroll and select the BIOSCI.SRC.

    Once the source has been selected you can then move with your
    mouse to the "Tell me about"  section and write a normal free form
    message in plain  english... marvelous that you do not have to
    remember any syntax... 

    Let's SEARCH for "harper wais"... that's right bring that
    spotlight down on me:-)... and in under 15 seconds a tcp
    connection is made to  Genbank and Wais looks for the keywords
    wais and harper and comes  up with 40 documents found.

At the top of the list I get an entry in the form 

1000 6.4K (07/29/91) Rob.Harper Re: WAIS SESSION (SWAIS Simple WAIS)

    The score 1000 suggests that this article might be the best one to
    look at first... 6.4K tells you how big it is in kilobytes...
    07/29/91 is the date when it was written... what a joy for those
    who want priority in  patents... Rob.Harper, the author of the
    article (hey this is better than having your name in lights) and
    Re: WAIS SESSION the original subject as it appeared on the Usenet
    newsgroups.

    From inside the XWAIS question any of these files can be VIEWED online.
    I just click with the mouse the text I want to read and it will show
    up on the screen has highlighted and then by clicking on the VIEW button
    the document will be retrieved via tcp from Genbank for viewing. e.g.

>This is for the adventurous... a quick introduction to WAIS via
>SWAIS using telnet. Just telnet hub.nnsc.nsf.net and when asked
>for a login give the login wais.

    OK kids that it... get to it... I suppose the next question to be
    answered is "How do you make a SOURCE"

    How about it Eliot??? the stage is all yours.

    Rob "Xwais" Harper.