Here's the latest (that we know) about W3, the hypertext information
system. The High-Energy Physics world got
its first official announcement of W3 in the CERN computer newsletter
released at Christmas, with an introductory article. However, there are
already many users of W3 outside HEP!
New browser
The new year starts with a release (version 1.1 - our first official
"version1" release) of the line mode browser. This has protocol code in for
a wealth of new information, with:
o Direct access to internet news groups
o Direct access to " gopher " campus-wide information systems etc.
(Gopher is system similar to W3 but using a web of menus and
plain text files rather than hypertext. It is all readable as
hypertext using W3)
o Browsing of remote directories using FTP. Before, files could be
read - now you can browse around as well. Any FTP site becomes a W3
information source.
o Links directly to telnet (and rlogin) sites. This allows
hypertexts to point to online communications facilities which don't
have servers.
o Extensibility using gateways - you can configure www to use specific
gateways for any access protocol which might turn up in the future
which it can't handle directly.
The user interface is slightly improved, and you can save a document to a
file, pipe it, or print it (under unix).
The browser version can be picked up by anonymous FTP in the usual way
including source binaries for several platforms.
Those who have built other hypertext systems (such as Hyperbole and Viola)
on top of the www browser will immediately gain access to the all this newly
accessible information.
W3 at SLAC
Hot on the heels of the announcement of the W3 server for the "SPIRES"
High-Energy Physics preprint database at the Stanford Linear ACcelerator lab
comes news from Paul Kunz that the line mode browser is installed on all
unix systems at SLAC. Happy browsing, folks.
Browsing on VM/CMS
The IBM mainframe at CERN now has a copy of the w3 browser (v0.14) running
in line mode. We are considering ways to make it more full-screen in the VM
style. The v1.1 browser is under test and may be installed by the time
you get this. Other VM sites mail me for details.
Browsing under X with Viola
A version of www running in the "Viola" hypertext system looks neat - I just
saw it running on an apollo and on a decstation. We shall release it soon
with the coming new version of viola.
Conferences
The W3 demonstration had an enthusiastic reception at " HyperText'91 " in
San Antonio, Texas.
Jean-Francois Groff presented W3 live at the Software Engineering
and AI for High-Energy Physics workshop in La Londe, France. We've also
been asked to demonstrate, as well as present a paper, at the Joint European
Networking Conference (JENC3) in Innsbruck, Austria, in May.
As usual, details by telnetting info.cern.ch (no username or password),
then selecting the "WorldWideWeb" link, software by anonymous FTP
from node info.cern.ch.
__________________________________________________________
Tim Berners-Lee timbl@info.cern.ch
World Wide Web project (NeXTMail is ok)
CERN Tel: +41(22)767 3755
1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland Fax: +41(22)767 7155