Re: Client-side searching proposal

John Franks (john@math.nwu.edu)
Thu, 26 Jan 1995 15:31:31 +0100


In article <9501252156.AA08367@ooo.lanl.gov>, you write:
> > >
>
> I don't want to see this idea fizzle away as just another idea, so
> how does one go about getting it accepted or implemented ? (Ncom ?)
>

As I mentioned before many things very similar to these ideas (putting
a search term into a URL to designate a location for the browser to
start) have been implemented on the server side in the WN server
You see a list of the types possible at
<http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/search.html>

But an interesting thing occurred to me about the nature of WWW while
thinking about the relative merits of client side versus server side
implementations for this kind of functionality. If it is done on the
server (as it is in WN) then for that server it just works -- with every
client. On the other hand to do it in the client requires the daunting
political task of arriving at a consensual standard and getting it
implemented in all the browsers. This is a case where I opt for the
server side for purely social and political reasons, even though
technically there are some advantages to the client side.

--

John Franks Dept of Math. Northwestern University john@math.nwu.edu