Subject: Re: what I have been up to

From: dwells (Don Wells)
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 94 14:42:13 EST

Bob Jackson writes:
 > I have been working on making the VALIDATEURL tool more
 > robust.  It works well on > > http > wais
 > Still have to create some commands/tools to store and examine
 > the long term results.  A resource might be down for a few days, 
 > but then come back.  So the longer term behavior must be tracked.

This is going to add a lot of value to the database. A periodic report
of up/down history could be very informative.

 > 	yp_master.html
 > and makes it searchable via
 > 	http://lor.stsci.edu/htbin/search-master

It works, and the result is definitely a useful capability.  It has
the advantage that it indexes *everything*, including invisible
information like the components of URLs and the CATEGORY strings. Text
added in the <DD> sections will make such WAIS searches even more
effective. 

 > The search fails every now and them, but until I figure out
 > why...

Yes. My first test was "eso", and it failed. Later I tried that again,
and it worked.

 > The tool could grab master lists from several sites
 > and merge them into a single WAIS index.

Indeed it could.

-Don