Metainformation about arbitrary Objects..

WWW Mailing list common A/c. (wwwtalk@fcpl.fcpl.ernet.in)
Sun, 1 Jan 1995 02:09:58 +0100


Subject: Metainformation about arbitrary Objects..

Hello!
I am fairly a novice in the world of Web. I understand the HTTP is very
general purpose and one could have Newsgroups, or mailing lists configured
and accessed transparently through HTTP servers. I would like to know how
and what kind of meta information that one could produce on arbitrary
objects such as Newsgroups, Mailing lists, etc. A newsgroup can have information
like name of the group, a number of articles posted, a newsgroup editor
(if any) etc. Can one provide all such information in HTTP headers?
What would a browser do with such information?

Another related question is: if an application like mail is permitted then
posting a message is probably fine; however, how is one supposed to read
his/her messages? All operations on a mail box are to be suitably converted
into hypertext source files, etc. Isn't this really bad? Are there any
HTTP servers on the Internet with which such services are being offered?

Thanks much in advance for all the feedback!

/cvr
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