Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.www.misc,comp.infosystems.www.providers,comp.infosystems.www.users
Path: network.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!boutell
From: boutell@netcom.com (Thomas Boutell)
Subject: World Wide Web FAQ (NEW): Frequently Asked Questions
Message-ID: <boutellCr1vqq.Gwt@netcom.com>
Organization: Nerdsholm
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 23:25:38 GMT
Lines: 1082
Xref: network.ucsd.edu comp.infosystems.www.misc:26 comp.infosystems.www.providers:41 comp.infosystems.www.users:46
(Many new additions, including transparent GIFs. I am in the process
of reconfiguring the FAQ autoposting stuff and validating the new
newsgroups line with the news.answers people. -T)
WORLD WIDE WEB FAQ
Contents
* 1: Recent changes to the FAQ
* 2: Information about this document
* 3: Elementary Questions
+ 3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?
+ 3.2: What is a URL?
+ 3.3: How can I access the web?
o 3.3.1: Browsers Accessible by Telnet
o 3.3.2: Obtaining browsers
# 3.3.2.1: Microsoft Windows browsers
# 3.3.2.2: MSDOS browsers
# 3.3.2.3: Macintosh browsers
# 3.3.2.4: Amiga browsers
# 3.3.2.5: NeXTStep browsers
# 3.3.2.6: X/DecWindows (graphical UNIX, VMS)
browsers
# 3.3.2.7: Text-based Unix and VMS browsers
# 3.3.2.8: Batch-mode "browsers"
+ 3.4: How can I provide information to the web?
o 3.4.1: Obtaining Servers
# 3.4.1.1: Unix Servers
# 3.4.1.2: Macintosh Servers
# 3.4.1.3: Windows and Windows NT Servers
# 3.4.1.4: VMS Servers
o 3.4.2: Producing HTML documents
# 3.4.2.1: Writing HTML directly
# 3.4.2.2: HTML editors
# 3.4.2.3: Converting other formats to HTML
o 3.4.3: How do I publicize my work?
+ 3.5: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?
+ 3.6: What is on the web?
+ 3.7: I want to know more.
o 3.7.1: What newsgroups discuss the web?
* 4: Advanced Questions
+ 4.1: How do I set up a clickable image map?
+ 4.2: How do I make a "link" that doesn't load a new page?
+ 4.3: Where can I learn how to create fill-out forms?
+ 4.4: How can I save an inline image to disk?
+ 4.5: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with WinMosaic?
+ 4.6: How do I comment an HTML document?
+ 4.7: How can I create decent-looking tables and stop using
<PRE>...</PRE>?
+ 4.8: What is HTML+ and where can I learn more about it?
+ 4.9: How can I make transparent GIFs?
+ 4.10: I have a Windows PC (or a Macintosh). Why can't I open
WAIS URLs?
+ 4.11: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external viewers
working?
+ 4.12: How come mailto: URLs don't work?
* 5: Credits
1: RECENT CHANGES TO THE FAQ
* 6/7/1994: Information on new newsgroups added
* 6/7/1994: SoftQuad HotMetaL references added
* 6/7/1994: WAIS-on-PCs question added
* 6/7/1994: External viewers & mime types question added
* 6/7/1994: mailto: URLs question added
* 6/3/1994: Transparent GIF information added
* 6/3/1994: htmltext WYSIWYG HTML editor added
* 6/3/1994: Windows NT version of SerWeb added
* 6/3/1994: WEB4HAM Windows server added
(Up to Table of Contents)
2: INFORMATION ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
This is an introduction to the World Wide Web project, describing the
concepts, software and access methods. It is aimed at people who know
a little about navigating the Internet, but want to know more about
WWW specifically. If you don't think you are up to this level, try an
introductory Internet book such as Ed Krol's "The Whole Internet" or
"Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet". The latter is available
electronically by anonymous FTP from ftp.eff.org in the directory
pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy.
This informational document is posted to news.answers,
comp.infosystems.www.users, comp.infosystems.www.providers,
comp.infosystems.www.misc, comp.infosystems.gopher,
comp.infosystems.wais and alt.hypertext every four days (please allow
a day or two for it to propagate to your site). The latest version is
always available on the web as
http://siva.cshl.org/~boutell/www_faq.html. (see the section titled
"What is a URL?" to understand what this means.)
The most recently posted version of this document is kept on the
news.answers archive on rtfm.mit.edu in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/faq. For information on FTP, send e-mail
to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with:
send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources
in the body (not subject line) of your message, instead of asking me.
Thomas Boutell maintains this document. Feedback about it is to be
sent via e-mail to boutell@netcom.com.
In all cases, regard this document as out of date. Definitive
information should be on the web, and static versions such as this
should be considered unreliable at best. Please excuse any formatting
inconsistencies in the posted version of this document, as it is
automatically generated from the on-line version.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3: ELEMENTARY QUESTIONS
3.1: What are WWW, hypertext and hypermedia?
WWW stands for "World Wide Web". The WWW project, started by CERN (the
European Laboratory for Particle Physics), seeks to build a
distributed hypermedia system.
The advantage of hypertext is that in a hypertext document, if you
want more information about a particular subject mentioned, you can
usually "just click on it" to read further detail. In fact, documents
can be and often are linked to other documents by completely different
authors -- much like footnoting, but you can get the referenced
document instantly!
To access the web, you run a browser program. The browser reads
documents, and can fetch documents from other sources. Information
providers set up hypermedia servers which browsers can get documents
from.
The browsers can, in addition, access files by FTP, NNTP (the Internet
news protocol), gopher and an ever-increasing range of other methods.
On top of these, if the server has search capabilities, the browsers
will permit searches of documents and databases.
The documents that the browsers display are hypertext documents.
Hypertext is text with pointers to other text. The browsers let you
deal with the pointers in a transparent way -- select the pointer, and
you are presented with the text that is pointed to.
Hypermedia is a superset of hypertext -- it is any medium with
pointers to other media. This means that browsers might not display a
text file, but might display images or sound or animations.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.2: What is a URL?
URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator". It is a draft standard for
specifying an object on the Internet, such as a file or newsgroup.
URLs look like this: (file: and ftp: URLs are synonymous.)
* file://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics/gifkit.zip
* ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors
* http://info.cern.ch:80/default.html
* news:alt.hypertext
* telnet://dra.com
The first part of the URL, before the colon, specifies the access
method. The part of the URL after the colon is interpreted specific to
the access method. In general, two slashes after the colon indicate a
machine name (machine:port is also valid).
When you are told to "check out this URL", what to do next depends on
your browser; please check the help for your particular browser. For
the line-mode browser at CERN, which you will quite possibly use first
via telnet, the command to try a URL is "GO URL" (substitute the
actual URL of course). In Lynx you just select the "GO" link on the
first page you see; in graphical browsers, there's usually an "Open
URL" option in the menus. (Up to Table of Contents)
3.3: How can I access the web?
You have two options -- either use a browser that can be telnetted to,
or use a browser on your machine.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.1: BROWSERS ACCESSIBLE BY TELNET
An up-to-date list of these is available on the Web as
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/FAQ/Bootstrap.html and should be
regarded as an authoritative list.
info.cern.ch
No password is required. This is in Switzerland, so continental
US users might be better off using a closer browser.
ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
A full screen browser "Lynx" which requires a vt100 terminal.
Log in as www. NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Lynx is still the best
plain-text browser, so move mountains if necessary to get your
own copy of Lynx!
www.njit.edu
(or telnet 128.235.163.2) Log in as www. A full-screen browser
in New Jersey Institute of Technology. USA.
vms.huji.ac.il
(IP address 128.139.4.3). A dual-language Hebrew/English
database, with links to the rest of the world. The line mode
browser, plus extra features. Log in as www. Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, Israel.
sun.uakom.cs
Slovakia. Has a slow link, only use from nearby.
info.funet.fi
(or telnet 128.214.6.102). Log in as www. Working now.
fserv.kfki.hu
Hungary. Has slow link, use from nearby. Login is as www.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2: OBTAINING BROWSERS
The preferred method of access of the Web is to run a browser
yourself. Browsers are available for many platforms, both in source
and executable forms. Here is a list generated from the authoritative
list, http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2.1: Microsoft Windows browsers
NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
lines, but only with the active cooperation of your network provider
or educational institution. If you only have normal dialup shell
access, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the Unix (or
VMS, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
so.
Cello Browser from Cornell LII. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.law.cornell.edu in the directory /pub/LII/cello.
Mosaic for Windows From NCSA. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory PC/Mosaic. (Up to Table of
Contents)
3.3.2.2: MSDOS browsers
NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
lines, but only with the active cooperation of your network provider
or educational institution. If you only have normal dialup shell
access, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the Unix (or
VMS, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
so.
DosLynx
DosLynx is an excellent text-based browser for use on DOS
systems. You must have a level 1 packet driver, or an emulation
thereof, or you will only be able to browse local files;
essentially, if your PC has an Ethernet connection, or you have
SLIP, you should be able to use it. DosLynx can view GIF
images, but not when they are inline images (as of this
writing). See the README.HTM file at the DosLynx site for
details. You can obtain DosLynx by anonymous FTP from
ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in the directory pub/WWW/DosLynx; the URL is
ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/WWW/DosLynx/.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2.3: Macintosh browsers
NOTE: These browsers require that you have SLIP, PPP or other TCP/IP
networking on your PC. SLIP or PPP can be accomplished over phone
lines, but only with the active cooperation of your network provider
or educational institution. If you only have normal dialup shell
access, your best option at this time is to run Lynx on the Unix (or
VMS, or...) system you call, or telnet to a browser if you cannot do
so.
Mosaic for Macintosh
From NCSA. Full featured. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mac/Mosaic.
Samba From CERN. Basic. Available by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch
in the directory /ftp/pub/www/bin as the file mac.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2.4: Amiga browsers
AMosaic
Browser for AmigaOS, based on NCSA's Mosaic. Supports older
Amigas as well as the newer machines in the latest versions, I
am told; available for anonymous ftp from
max.physics.sunysb.edu in the directory /pub/amosaic, or from
aminet sites in /pub/aminet/comm/net. see the site for details.
See the URL http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/AMosaic/home.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2.5: NeXTStep browsers
Note: NeXT systems can also run X-based browsers using one of the
widely used X server products for the NeXT. The browsers listed here,
by contrast, are native NeXTStep applications.
OmniWeb
A World Wide Web browser for NeXTStep. The URL for more
information is http://www.omnigroup.com/; you can ftp the
package from ftp.omnigroup.com in the /pub/software/ directory.
WorldWideWeb, CERN's NeXT Browser-Editor
A browser/editor for NeXTStep. Currently out of date; editor
not operational. Allows wysiwyg hypertext editing. Requires
NeXTStep 3.0. Available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in
the directory /pub/www/src.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2.6: X/DecWindows (graphical UNIX, VMS) browsers
NCSA Mosaic for X
Unix browser using X11/Motif. Multimedia magic. Full http 1.0
support including PUT-method forms, image maps, etc.
Recommended if you can run it. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory Mosaic.
NCSA Mosaic for VMS
Browser using X11/DecWindows/Motif. For the VMS operating
system. Multimedia magic. Full http 1.0 support including
PUT-method forms, image maps, etc. Recommended if you can run
it. Available by anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the
directory Mosaic.
tkWWW Browser/Editor for X11
Unix Browser/Editor for X11. (Beta test version.) Available for
anonymous ftp from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu in the directory
tkwww[extension] (followed by an extension possibly dependent
on the current version). Please ftp to the site and look for
the latest version (or use the link above). As of this writing
tkWWW is at verison 0.11. Supports WSYIWYG HTML editing.
MidasWWW Browser
A Unix/X browser from Tony Johnson. (Beta, works well.)
Viola for X (Beta)
Viola has two versions for Unix/X: one using Motif, one using
Xlib (no Motif). Handles HTML+ forms and tables. Has extensions
for multiple columning, collapsible/expandable list,
client-side document include. Available by anonymous FTP from
ora.com in /pub/www/viola. More information available at the
URL http://xcf.berkeley.edu/ht/projects/viola/README.
Chimera
Unix/X Browser using Athena (doesn't require Motif). Supports
forms, inline images, etc.; closest to Mosaic in feel of the
non-Motif X11 browsers. Available for anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.unlv.edu in the directory /pub/chimera.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2.7: Text-mode Unix and VMS browsers
These are text-based browsers for Unix (and in some cases also VMS)
systems. In many cases your system administrator will have already
installed one or more of these packages; check before compiling your
own copy.
Line Mode Browser
This program gives W3 readership to anyone with a dumb
terminal. A general purpose information retrieval tool.
Available by anonymous ftp from info.cern.ch in the directory
/pub/www/src.
The "Lynx" full screen browser
This is a hypertext browser for vt100s using full screen, arrow
keys, highlighting, etc. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp2.cc.ukans.edu.
Tom Fine's perlWWW
A tty-based browser written in perl. Available by anonymous FTP
from archive.cis.ohio-state.edu in the directory pub/w3browser
as the file w3browser-0.1.shar.
For VMS
Dudu Rashty's full screen client based on VMS's SMG screen
management routines. Available by anonymous FTP from
vms.huji.ac.il in the directory www/www_client.
Emacs w3-mode
W3 browse mode for emacs. Uses multiple fonts when used with
Lemacs or Epoch. See the documentation. Available by anonymous
FTP from moose.cs.indiana.edu in the directory pub/elisp/w3 as
the files w3.tar.Z and extras.tar.Z.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.3.2.8: Batch-Mode "Browsers"
Batch mode browser
A batch-mode "browser", url_get, which is available through the
URL http://wwwhost.cc.utexas.edu/test/zippy/url_get.html. It
can be retrieved via anonymous FTP to ftp.cc.utexas.edu, as the
file /pub/zippy/url_get.tar.Z. This package is intended for use
in cron jobs and other settings in which fetching a page in a
command-line fashion is useful.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4: How can I provide information to the web?
Information providers run programs that the browsers can obtain
hypertext from. These programs can either be WWW servers that
understand the HyperText Transfer Protocol HTTP (best if you are
creating your information database from scratch), "gateway" programs
that convert an existing information format to hypertext, or a
non-HTTP server that WWW browsers can access -- anonymous FTP or
gopher, for example.
To learn more about World Wide Web servers, you can consult a www
server primer by Nathan Torkington, available at the URL
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-servers.html.
If you only want to provide information to local users, placing your
information in local files is also an option. This means, however,
that there can be no off-machine access.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.1: OBTAINING SERVERS
Servers are available for Unix, Macintosh, MS Windows, and VMS
systems. If you know of a server for another operating system, please
contact me.
See http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Overview.html for more
information on writing servers and gateways in general.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.1.1: Unix Servers
NCSA httpd
NCSA has released a server, known as the NCSA httpd; it is
available at the URL ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pub/web/.
CERN httpd
CERN's server is available for anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch
(URL is ftp://info.cern.ch/) and many other places. Use your local
copy of archie to search for "www" in order to find a nearby site.
GN Gopher/HTTP server The GN server is unique in that it can
serve both WWW and Gopher clients (in their native modes). This is a
good server for those migrating from Gopher to WWW, although it does
not have the server-side-script capabilities of the NCSA and CERN
servers. See the URL http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/.
Perl server There is also a server written in the Perl scripting
language, called Plexus, for which documentation is available at the
URL http://bsdi.com/server/doc/plexus.html. (Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.1.2: Macintosh Servers
There is a server for the Macintosh, MacHTTP, available at the URL
http://www.uth.tmc.edu/mac_info/machttp_info.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.1.3: MS Windows and Windows NT Servers
HTTPS (Windows NT)
HTTPS is a server for Windows NT systems, both Intel and Alpha
-- based. It is available via anonymous FTP from emwac.ed.ac.uk
in the directory pub/https (URL is
ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https). (Be sure to download the
version appropriate to your processor.) You can read a detailed
announcement at the FTP site, or by using the URL
ftp://emwac.ed.ac.uk/pub/https/https.txt.
NCSA httpd for Windows
The NCSA httpd for Windows has most of the features of the Unix
version, including scripts (which generate pages on the fly
based on user input). It is available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the Web/ncsa_httpd/contrib directory as
the file whtp11a6.zip, or at the URL
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/ncsa_httpd/contrib/whtp11a6.zip.
SerWeb
A simple, effective server for Windows writtten by Gustavo
Estrella. Available by anonymous ftp from
winftp.cica.indiana.edu (or one of its mirror sites, such as
nic.switch.ch), as the file serweb03.zip, in the directory
/pub/pc/win3/winsock.
There is also a Windows NT version of SerWeb, available by
anonymous FTP from emwac.ed.ac.uk as /pub/serweb/serweb_i.zip.
WEB4HAM
Another Windows-based server, available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.informatik.uni-hamburg.de as /pub/net/winsock/web4ham.zip.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.1.4: VMS Servers
CERN HTTP for VMS
A port of the CERN server to VMS. Available at the URL
http://delonline.cern.ch/disk$user/duns/doc/vms/distribution.ht
ml.
Region 6 Threaded HTTP Server
A native VMS server which uses DECthreads(tm). This is a
potentially major performance advantage because VMS has a high
overhead for each process, which is a problem for the
frequently-forking NCSA and CERN servers that began life under
Unix. A multithreaded server avoids this overhead. Available at
the URL
http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/serverinfo.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.2: PRODUCING HTML DOCUMENTS
HTML is the simple markup system used to create hypertext documents.
There are three ways to produce HTML documents: writing them yourself,
which is not a very difficult skill to acquire, using an HTML editor,
which assists in doing the above, and converting documents in other
formats to HTML. The following three sections cover these
possibilities in sequence.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.2.1: Writing HTML documents yourself
You can write an HTML document with any text editor. Try the "source"
button of of your browser to look at the HTML for a page you find
particularly interesting. The odds are that it will be a great deal
simpler than you would expect. If you're used to marking up text in
any way (even red-pencilling it), HTML should be rather intuitive.
A beginner's guide to HTML is available at the URL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html.
There is also a good set of HTML documentation available at the URL
http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/htmldoc.html.
There is also an HTML primer by Nathan Torkington at the URL
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-html.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.2.2: HTML editors
Of course, most folks would still prefer to use a friendlier,
graphical editor. Some editors are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get), or close to it; others simply assist you in writing HTML by
plugging in the desired markup tags for you from a menu.
Fans of the EMACS editor can use EMACS and html-helper-mode , an EMACS
"mode" for HTML editing (URL is http://www.reed.edu/~nelson/tools/).
There is also another Emacs HTML mode, html-mode.el (URL is
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/elisp/html-mode.el).
For Microsoft Windows users, there is an editor called HTML Assistant
with features to assist in the creation of HTML documents. It can be
had by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.dal.ca in the directory /htmlasst/.
Read the README.1ST file in this directory for information on which
files to download.
A WYSIWYG editor for the Web, *SoftQuad HoTMetaL*, is available for
downloading at NCSA and other Mosaic server sites. The URL is
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/contrib/SoftQuad/sqhotmetal-1.0.tar.gz
. You need a Sun SPARC (MS-Windows coming soon) and 6MB of disk.
Because it is context-sensitive, HoTMetaL guides users in creating new
HTML documents and in cleaning up old ones. A Publish command changes
appropriate SRC and HREF attributes from local paths to http
locations. For more information, FTP the README file from the same
directory, or send email to hotmetal@sq.com. A HoTMetaL Pro
commercially supported version is available for purchase from SoftQuad
and its resellers.
An editor for all X users: A HREF="#browserstkwww">TkWWW (listed above
under X browsers) supports WYSIWYG HTML editing; and since it's a
browser, you can try out links immediately after creating them.
Also for X users, there is a package called htmltext which supports
WYSIWYG HTML editing. More information is available at the URL
http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/njw/htmltext/htmltext.html.
For Macintosh users, the BBEdit HTML extensions allow the BBEdit and
BBEdit Lite text editors for the Macintosh to conveniently edit HTML
documents. (URL is http://www.uji.es/bbedit-html-extensions.html.) You
can also obtain the extensions package by anonymous ftp from
sumex-aim.stanford.edu as info-mac/bbedit-html-ext-b3.hqx.
There is an alternative BBEdit extension package available as well; it
is available by FTP at the URL
ftp://ctipsych.york.ac.uk/CTI_FTP/pub/BBEdit/BBEdit_HTML_Tools.sea.hqx
.
NCSA's List of Filters and Editors, for which the URL is
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/faq-software.html#ed
itors, mentions several editors, including two for MS Windows.
Note that this URL contains uppercase and lowercase letters; certain
BROKEN browsers (apparently including Lynx for VMS) will require
that you open it directly, entering the URL in quotation marks.
Another option, if you have an SGML editor, is to use it with the HTML
DTD .
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.2.3: Converting other formats to HTML
There is a collection of filters for converting your existing
documents (in TeX and other non-HTML formats) into HTML automatically,
including filters that can allow more or less WYSIWYG editing using
various word processors:
Rich Brandwein and Mike Sendall's List at CERN. The URL is
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Tools/Filters.html.
(Note that this URL contains uppercase and lowercase letters; certain
BROKEN browsers (apparently including Lynx for VMS) will require
that you open it directly, entering the URL in quotation marks.)
There is also a Word for Windows template for writing HTML documents,
available at the URL http://www.gatech.edu/word_html/release.htm.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.4.3: HOW DO I PUBLICIZE MY WORK?
There are several things you can do to publicize your new HTML server
or other offering:
* Submit it to the NCSA What's New Page at the URL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html
(see the page for details on how to submit your listing!).
* Post it to the newsgroup comp.infosystems.announce. Please read
the group first to get a feel for the contents. You should not
post to comp.infosystems.www.users,.misc,.providers, etc., but if
you feel compelled to do so, please choose .misc as announcements
are of interest to both providers and users (and those who wear
both hats).
* Submit it to the maintainers of various catalogs, such as the WWW
Virtual Library at the URL
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.5: How does WWW compare to gopher and WAIS?
While all three of these information presentation systems are
client-server based, they differ in terms of their model of data. In
gopher, data is either a menu, a document, an index or a telnet
connection. In WAIS, everything is an index and everything that is
returned from the index is a document. In WWW, everything is a
(possibly) hypertext document which may be searchable.
In practice, this means that WWW can represent the gopher (a menu is a
list of links, a gopher document is a hypertext document without
links, searches are the same, telnet sessions are the same) and WAIS
(a WAIS index is a searchable page, returning a document with no
links) data models as well as providing extra functionality.
Gopher and World Wide Web usage are now running neck and neck,
according to the statistics-keepers of the Internet backbone. (Of
course, World Wide Web browsers can also access Gopher servers, which
inflates the numbers for the latter.) This is changing as WWW reaches
critical mass (usage of the server at CERN doubles every 4 months --
twice the rate of Internet expansion).
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.6: What is on the web?
Currently accessible through the web:
* anything served through gopher
* anything served through WAIS
* anything on an FTP site
* anything on Usenet
* anything accessible through telnet
* anything in hytelnet
* anything in hyper-g
* anything in techinfo
* anything in texinfo
* anything in the form of man pages
* sundry hypertext documents
One of the few limitations of the current networked information
systems is that there is no simple way to find out what has changed,
what is new, or even what is out there. As a result, a definitive list
of the web's contents is impossible at this moment. There are,
however, several resources which provide a great deal of information
on new and established servers by topic. These are just two:
* The WWW Virtual Library at the URL
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html,
a good place to find resources on a particular subject
* What's New With NCSA Mosaic at the URL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/whats-new.html,
which carries announcements of new servers on the web
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.7: I want to know more
To find out more, use the web. This FAQ hopefully provides enough
information for you to locate and install a browser on your system. If
you have system specific questions regarding FTP, networking and the
like, please consult newsgroups relevant to your particular hardware
and operating system!
Later you may return to this FAQ for answers to some of the advanced
questions covered in the second section. The advanced section contains
the most-asked technical questions in the group.
Once you're up and running, you may wish to consult the World Wide Web
Primer by Nathan Torkington. It is available at the URL
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/who/Nathan.Torkington/ideas/www-primer.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
3.7.1: WHAT NEWSGROUPS DISCUSS THE WEB?
You can also find discussion of World Wide Web topics in three
newsgroups:
comp.infosystems.www.users
A forum for the discussion of WWW client software and its use
in contacting various Internet information sources. New user
questions, client setup questions, client bug reports,
resource-discovery questions on how to locate information on
the web that can't be found by the means detailed in the FAQ
and comparison between various client packages are among the
acceptable topics for this group.
comp.infosystems.www.providers
A forum for the discussion of WWW server software and the use
of said software to present information to users. General
server design, setup questions, server bug reports, security
issues, HTML page design and other concerns of information
providers are among the likely topics for this group.
comp.infosystems.www.misc
A forum for general discussion of WWW (World Wide Web)- related
topics that are NOT covered by the other newsgroups in the
hierarchy. This will likely include discussions of the Web's
future, politicking regarding changes in the structure and
protocols of the web that affect both clients and servers, et
cetera.
comp.infosystems.www (DEFUNCT)
The old catch-all newsgroup, which may still exist on your
system but will be removed within three months of this writing
(June 7th, 1994).
(Up to Table of Contents)
4: ADVANCED QUESTIONS
4.1: How do I set up a clickable image map?
There are really two issues here: how to indicate in HTML that you
want an image to be clickable, and how to configure your server to do
something with the clicks returned by Mosaic, Chimera, and other
clients capable of delivering them.
You can read about image maps and the NCSA server at the URL
http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/setup/admin/Imagemap.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.2: How do I make a "link" that doesn't load a new page?
Such links are useful when a form is intended to perform some action
on the server machine without sending new information to the client,
or when a user has clicked in an undefined area in an image map; these
are just two possibilities.
Rob McCool of NCSA provided the following wisdom on the subject:
Yechezkal-Shimon Gutfreund (sg04@gte.com) wrote:
: Ok, here is another bizzare request from me:
: I am currently running scripts which I "DO NOT" want to return
: any visible result. That is, not text/plain, not text/HTML, not
: image/gif. The entire results are the side effects of the
: script and nothing should be returned to the viewer.
: It would be nice to have an internally supported null viewer
: so that I could do this, more "cleanly" (ok, ok, I hear your groans).
HTTP now supports a response code of 204, which is no operation. Some
browsers such as Mosaic/X 2.* support it. To use it, make your script
a nph script and output an HTTP/1.0 204 header. Something like:
HTTP/1.0 204 No response Server: Myscript/NCSA httpd 1.1
(You can learn more about nph scripts from the NCSA server
documentation at the URL http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs.)
Essentially they are scripts that handle their own HTTP response
codes.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.3: Where can I learn how to create fill-out forms?
You can read about the Common Gateway Interface at the URL
http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/cgi/. In addition to documenting the
standard interface for which scripts can now be written for both NCSA
and CERN-derived servers, these pages also cover HTML forms and how to
handle the results on the server side.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.4: How can I save an inline image to disk?
Here are two ways:
1. Turn on "load to local disk" in your browser, if it has such an
option; then reload images. You'll be prompted for filenames instead
of seeing them on the screen. Be sure to shut it off when you're done
with it.
2. Choose "view source" and browse through the HTML source; find the
URL for the inline image of interest to you; copy and paste it into
the "Open URL" window. This should load it into your image viewer
instead, where you can save it and otherwise muck about with it.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.5: How can I get sound from the PC speaker with WinMosaic?
This piece of wisdom donated by Hunter Monroe:
This section explains how to install sound on a PC which already has a
working version of Mosaic for Microsoft Windows. Be warned in advance
that the results may be poor.
To get Mosaic to produce sound out of the PC speaker, first, you need
a driver for the speaker. You can get the Microsoft speaker driver
from the URL ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SPEAK.EXE or by
doing an Archie search to find it somewhere else. SPEAK.EXE is a
self-extracting file. Copy the speak.exe file to a new directory, and
then type "SPEAK" at the DOS prompt. Do not put the file SPEAKER.DRV
in a separate directory from OEMSETUP.INF.
Now, you need to install the driver. In Windows, from the Program
Manager choose successively Main/Control Panel/Drivers/Add/Unlisted or
updated drivers/(enter path of SPEAK.EXE)/PC Speaker. At this point
some strange sounds come out as the driver is initialized. Change the
settings to improve the sound quality on the various sounds: tada,
chimes, etc. Click OK when you are finished and choose the Restart
windows option.
Having installed the speaker driver, you will now get sounds whenever
you start Windows, make a mistake, or exit Windows. If you do not want
this, from the Main/Control Panel/Sounds menu, make sure there is no X
next to "Enable System Sounds."
Now, you need a sound viewer program that Mosaic can call to display
sounds. NCSA unfortunately recommend WHAM, which does not work well
with a PC speaker. Get the program WPLANY instead. You can find a copy
nearby with an Archie search on the string "wplny"; the current
version is WPLNY09B.ZIP. For details on archie and other basic issues
related to FTP, please read the Usenet newsgroup
news.announce.newusers.
Move the zip file to a new directory, and use an unzip program like
pkunzip to unzip it, producing the files WPLANY.EXE and WPLANY.DOC.
Then edit the MOSAIC.INI file to remove the "REM" before the line
"TYPE9=audio/basic". Then, you need lines in the section below that
read something like: audio/basic="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls"
audio/wav="c:\wplany\wplany.exe %ls" where you have filled in the
correct path for wplany.exe. The MOSAIC.INI file delivered with Mosaic
may have NOTEPAD.EXE on the audio/basic line, but this will not work.
Now, restart Mosaic, and you should now be able to produce sounds. To
check this, with Mosaic choose File/Local File/\WINDOWS\*.WAV and then
try to play TADA.WAV. Then, you might try the Mosaic Demo document for
some .AU sounds, but you are lucky if your speaker produces something
you can understand.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.6: How do I comment an HTML document?
Use the <!-- tag at the beginning of EACH line commented out; close
this for EACH line with the --> tag. Note that comments do not nest,
and the sequence "--" may not appear inside a comment except as part
of the closing --> tag.
You should not try to use this to "comment out" HTML that would
otherwise be shown to the user, since some browsers (notably Mosaic)
will still pay attention to tags inside the comment and close it
prematurely.
Thanks to Joe English for clearing up this issue.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.7: How can I create decent-looking tables and stop using <PRE>... </PRE>?
Tables are a standard feature in HTML+, a forthcoming superset of
HTML. Unfortunately, they are at present implemented only by the Viola
and Emacs-W3 browsers, to my knowledge.
However, there is a way to use HTML+ tables now and convert them
automatically to HTML, allowing you to design proper tables and
install those pages directly when table support arrives in the
majority of clients. You can do this using the html+tables package, by
Brooks Cutter (bcutter@paradyne.com), which is available for anonymous
ftp from sunsite.unc.edu in the directory
pub/packages/infosystems/WWW/tools/html+tables.shar. This package
requires the shell language Perl, which is primarily used on Unix
systems but is also available for other systems (such as MSDOS
machines). html+tables accepts HTML+ and outputs html using the
<PRE>...</PRE> construct to represent tables, allowing you to write
HTML+ now, knowing that it will look better when clients are ready for
it.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.8: What is HTML+ and where can I learn more about it?
HTML+ is a superset of HTML designed to address some of the
limitations of HTML. HTML+ supports true tables, right-justified text,
centered text, line breaks that do not double space, and many other
desired features.
However, most clients support only a handful of HTML+ features (such
as forms in Mosaic) at this time.
To learn more about HTML+, you can examine the ascii text of a draft
specification for it at the URL
ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-raggett-www-html-00.txt or
a Postscript version of the same at the URL
ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-raggett-www-html-00.ps.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.9: How can I make transparent GIFs?
Transparent GIFs are useful because they appear to blend in smoothly
with the user's display, even if the user has set a background color
that differs from that the developer expected.
There is a document explaining transparent GIFs available at the URL
http://melmac.harris-atd.com/transparent_images.html. You can fetch
the program giftrans by anonymous ftp from ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de at
the path /pub/net/www/tools/giftrans.c.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.10: I have a Windows PC or Macintosh. Why can't I access WAIS URLs?
This answer provided by Michael Grady (m-grady@uiuc.edu):
The version of Mosaic for X has "wais client" code built-in to it.
This was relatively easy for the developers to do, because there was
already a set of library routines for talking to WAIS available for
Unix as "public domain" (freeWAIS). I don't think there is such a
library of routines for PC/Windows or Mac, which would make it much
more difficult for the Mosaic versions for Windows and the Mac to add
"wais client" capability. Therefore, at least for now, neither the
Windows or Mac versions of Mosaic support direct query of a WAIS
server (i.e. can act as wais clients themselves).
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.11: I'm running XMosaic. Why can't I get external viewers working...
... No matter what no matter what I do to my .mailcap and .mime.types
files?
Answer provided by Ronald E. Daniel (rdaniel@acl.lanl.gov):
Mosaic only looks at the .mime.types file if it has no idea what the
document's type is. This is actually a very rare situation.
Essentially all servers now use the HTTP/1.0 protocol, which means
that they tell Mosaic (or other browsers) what the document's MIME
Content-type is. The servers use a file very much like Mosaic's
.mime.types file to infer the Content-type from the filename's
extension.
It is pretty simple to find out if this really is the problem. Use
telnet to talk to the server and find out if it is assigning a MIME
type to the document in question. Here's an example, looking at the
home page for my server. (idaknow: is my shell prompt)
idaknow: telnet www.acl.lanl.gov 80 // Connect to the httpd server
Trying 128.165.148.3 ...
Connected to www.acl.lanl.gov.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD /Home.html HTTP/1.0 // replace Home.html with your document
// you supply the blank line
HTTP/1.0 200 OK // the rest of this comes from the serve
r Date: Wednesday, 25-May-94 19:18:11 GMT
Server: NCSA/1.1
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/html // Here's the MIME Content-type
Last-modified: Monday, 16-May-94 16:21:58 GMT
Content-length: 1727
Connection closed by foreign host.
idaknow:
In the example above, /Home.html will get
http://www.acl.lanl.gov/Home.html.
Normally servers will be configured to supply a Content-type of
test/plain if they don't know what else to do. If this is the problem
you are having, take a look at the TypesConfig documentation for
NCSA's httpd. You can have the server look at the filename extension,
supply the correct Content-type, then use your local .mailcap file to
tell Mosaic what viewer to use to look at the document.
(Up to Table of Contents)
4.12: How come mailto: URLs don't work?
The mailto: URL is an innovation found in Lynx and a few other
browsers. It is not yet found in Mosaic, the most popular browser.
Hopefully it will be present in future versions. In the meantime, you
can set up forms which send mail to you; there is documentation on
this at the URL http://siva.cshl.org/email/index.html.
(Up to Table of Contents)
5: CREDITS
* Thomas Boutell boutell@netcom.com
* Nathan Torkington Nathan.Torkington@vuw.ac.nz
* Marc Andreessen marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
* Tony Johnson
(Up to Table of Contents)
--
boutell@netcom.com, purveyor of fine HTML pages to the biology trade.
FAQ-keeper for comp.infosystems.www.misc,.providers and .users.
Drop by and learn about the Web.
<a href="http://siva.cshl.org/boutell.html"><em>Thomas Boutell</em></A>