Subject: Re: I know this has nothing to do with Apache but...
To: new-httpd@hyperreal.com
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 07:30:50 +0100 (BST)
From: Ben Laurie <ben@gonzo.ben.algroup.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <9510181651.AA06776@void.ncsa.uiuc.edu> from "Beth Frank" at Oct
 18, 95 11:51:30 am
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> 
> > 
> > BTW, anyone tried this Hyper-G gadget?
> 
> NCSA is doing collaborative work with the Hyper-G people at Gratz University
> in Germany.  What do you want to know?

I'd quite like to know a few things:

1. When are they going to fix their Web site? It doesn't work at all, apart
from the top page.

2. When are they going to work with proxies? I can't use Hyper-G at all without
that. I can't even download it.

3. When will source be available? (And if the answer is never they might as
well give up now, I reckon).

4. Why does everyone have an opinion on Hyper-G, and noone on wu-ftpd which
was my REAL question?  :-)

> 
> 
> From David Oliver:
> >        I tried this from Berlin DE while I was over there first
> >        half of 1995.   The upside is that "it's all in the server".
> >        The downside is "it's all in the server".  I like the
> >        user interface paradigm in their (one-and-only I think)
> >        browser, but all aspects of the browser have to be Hyper-G
> >        "aware" - that is, no such thing as "helper apps" which are
> >        independent of the xaction protocols.  :-(  I think this work
> >        grew up concurrently with the WWW, and they are hip enough
> >        to recognize the success of the Web and provide a Web
> >        interface (you dont get full functionality, but you get
> >        SOMETHING).  BTW, I think a number of Euro professional organizations
> >        are using it as their archive handler (i.e. it has found users)
> >
> >        ... oops, lost my URL for it.  I can try to find and post
> >        if anyone is interested.
> 
> 
> Their URL is : http://hyperg.iicm.tu-graz.ac.at/Chyperg
> 
> (Note:  I tried to check the URL since I haven't been to the Hyper-G
> site in a while, but the download was slow enough I had to leave for
> a meeting before it finished.  My apologies if the URL is no longer 
> valid.)
> 
> They have a lot of nice features.  Their biggest problem lies with
> scalability.  Since every server knows about all the documents in every
> server it is easy to maintain consistency, and provide link maps, but
> it just doesn't scale well.

"doesn't scale well" is understating, I think...

>  The client uses a session manager which
> brings up windows for each service requested.  You can link a jpeg,
> audio track, and document together to be a single object.  They do
> content negotiation on at least the language field and some other
> fields.  We've modified some of their code for use with some of our
> client applications so we both can embed links in video now.  I think
> some of their viewers are being modified to work with Mosaic.  To
> reach WWW a Hyper-G client goes through an HTTP gateway.  The Repository
> project has been trying to include several of their ideas.

What's the Repository project (really showing my ignorance now  :-)

Cheers,

Ben.

-- 
Ben Laurie                  Phone: +44 (181) 994 6435
Freelance Consultant        Fax:   +44 (181) 994 6472
and Technical Director      Email: ben@algroup.co.uk
A.L. Digital Ltd,
London, England.