Re: LYNX-DEV mockup of revised archive format

[Foteos Macrides]

Russell McOrmond <address@hidden> wrote:
>  Also, we should probably avoid re-inventing wheels.  I know that with 
>FLORA resources we are short on volunteer time so installing and 
>maintaining custom versions of software will not work out well.  With 
>this in mind we need to make sure that the format is something that can 
>be handled by MHonArc, or is a general enough feature that DIFFS sent to 
>the author of MHonArc would be accepted.
>
>  Did you read my note in ListElves about the work I intend to do with 
>http://news.flora.org  ?  We may want to make generic 'views' that would 
>be useful for different types of users.  I could then try to incorportate 
>a way for users to choose which 'view' they want to use when browsing 
>information on this new service.

        I was in the process of writing a long reply to the original
note, when this one arrived.  http://news.flora.org isn't set up yet,
so I can't see an example of what you're planning but it sounds good.
What I was in the process of suggesting was that you set up a "local"
but publically accessible news group (e.g., lynx.dev) with an nntp
server on a special port, and address@hidden as the group's
"moderatior" (i.e., no actual posting to it, just archiving of
mail from a address@hidden subscription, like the MHonArc gateway)
and create cover pages using the article range URL scheme by month and
year, e.g.:

<li><a href="nntp://news.flora.org:port/lynx.dev/20479-21035";
    >Nov 1996</a>
    
Lynx would then use it's *own* gateway to create the article listings,
and to HTMLize any raw messages requested, with the raw headers
converted to links, including a Reply-To header with a mailto link
for address@hidden, and the Subject header used to create a proper
"RE: <subject>".  That may be too much to set up for a volunteer-
short site, but once set up, it would require little attention
and involve minimal overhead (since the user's Lynx image does
the work, and the nntp server simply sends HEAD replies for the
listings, or the raw articles).

                                Fote

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 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
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