Subject: Re: Collaboration on URLs

From: dwells (Don Wells)
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 94 09:50:14 EST

Dear Andre,

Andre HECK writes:
 > In principle, I agree of course to collaborate with you and your fellows
 > although I have still to assess in which way I would have to change my
 > way of compiling these URLs and which impact this would have on an 
 > already saturated life.

I will be glad to have an opportunity to collaborate with you.
I have added your name to the distribution list of our Email exploder:

    [email-masked]    (astroweb-request for administrative traffic)

This reply is via the exploder. The current content of the list is

[email-masked] (Don Wells)
Bob Jackson <[email-masked]>
[email-masked] (Hans-Martin Adorf)
Andre HECK <[email-masked]>

 > .. A searchable facility (such as within the
 > databases) would allow to find the information faster than by just
 > scanning the existing list..

Recently Bob Jackson implemented an elegant search form for our merged
database. His resource list at STScI and mine at NRAO both have URLs
pointing to his service. I am very pleased with the operation of this
service. 

 > .. As you may have noticed, some URLs are
 > duplicated under different entries to make their identification easier..

Our format permits, and encourages, multiple names, and the text block
permits, and encourages, a more extensive explanation to help users
recognize the relevance of resources. Also, we allow multiple CATEGORY
codes, so that resources appear in more than one list when we present
lists classified by category.

 > Now, I just had a quick look at your own list..
 > .. What worries me (and there are about twenty years of data
 > compilation behind this statement) is how you will be able to keep your
 > information (comments and so on) on each entry updated. ..

We are worried about this problem too. We propose to try two
solutions: (1) Bob Jackson has constructed a program which tests the
URLs in our database and (2) the OWNER Email addresses in the database
will enable us to send the records to the owners periodically for
review. Initially we will depend on (1), because very few of the
resource records have OWNER fields. 

 > Enough for the time being. In conclusion, my reaction is positive.
 > You may point to my pages and even use the information with ad hoc
   ^^^^^^^                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 > credit, but I shall need some clarification and thinking before
   ^^^^^^
 > fully committing myself. I'll be in touch.

Our database already contains resource records pointing to your lists.

The sentence above gives us permission to copy your resource records.
Unless you change your mind within the next few days, and tell me to
stop, I will merge your data with ours within about one week. I have
already converted and merged three databases, so I can estimate the
work involved (about six hours). I will add CATEGORY codes to your
records during the conversion.

With an additional hour or two of work, I will be able to compute an
emulation of your pages from the combined database. The "astro_info"
link in the header of the NRAO page points to a proof-of-concept
emulation of the ST-ECF page, which is similar in style to your CDS
resources page.

Your pages contain numerous resource records in two new categories,
physics and computer science. I expect to add CATEGORY codes 'physics'
and 'comp_sci'. Your personal anchor list will require yet another
code, probably to be 'personal'.

Obviously you (and everybody else) are welcome to use the combined
database in any way that you see fit. Currently the NRAO version is at

http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/www/yp_master.html (114586 bytes, Feb 27 18:35)

File yp_master is sorted by internet address. File yp_p_list contains
the same records, but sorted by protocol+name_string (the sort order
used by the STScI pages, currently yp_p_list.html separated into pages
by protocol).

The subdirectory 'astroweb' under directory 'www' (which is also
visible via anonFTP as /fits/www/astroweb) contains my files for
constructing and maintaining the database. Programs dtsort.awk,
dtsplit.awk, dtcheck.awk and dtnodd.awk, plus the Makefile, are the
key pieces of technology. They are visible via anonFTP, and I regard
them as completely public domain.

I designed these programs to be flexible, portable tools which can be
adapted by people at other organizations, such as you at CDS, to
produce resource lists with styles different from the style I
currently use. Already we have learned the lesson that there is no one
"right" style, that there are good reasons for the continued existence
of multiple styles and access techniques (such as Bob's search form).

In the end, the really important thing is to agree on a canonical
exchange format for database records. "The purpose of standardization
is to aid the creative craftsman, not to enforce the common mediocrity."

 > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 > Prof. Andre HECK          -+-  *    Phone (direct)     +33-88.35.82.22
 > Observatoire Astronomique    *      Phone (Secretary)  +33-88.35.82.18
 > 11, rue de l'Universite   -+-   *   Fax (direct)       +33-88.49.12.55
 > F-67000 Strasbourg      *    -+-    Fax (Secretary)    +33-88.25.01.60
 > France               -+-   *    *   Telex              890506 starobs f
 > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 > Mosaic homepage URL:     http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/~heck
 > -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Best regards,
Don

PS: You are the first person we have invited to join with us (Fionn
suggested it). Hans-Martin, Bob and I have agreed that we will invite
a second person, Anton Koekemoer ([email-masked]); you should
look at http://meteor.anu.edu.au/anton/astronomy.html. Anton appears
to have copied records from other lists (possibly including your
lists), but he has also made independent discoveries. Exploration of
the URLs in his list-of-lists (at the end of his page) shows that the
construction of resource lists has become a cottage industry in the
astronomy community. I believe that we need to combine the efforts of
our whole community, and that is what our collaboration effort is all
about.

  Donald C. Wells         Associate Scientist         [email-masked]
                    http://fits.cv.nrao.edu/~dwells
  National Radio Astronomy Observatory                +1-804-296-0277
  520 Edgemont Road,   Charlottesville, Virginia       22903-2475 USA