Re: Stuff that happened at a workshop in Cambridge.

[Brian Behlendorf <br...@organic.com>]

On Thu, 30 May 1996, Robert S. Thau wrote:
> 1) I was asked a couple of times, "could Apache support XXX"?  My
>    general answer, after stressing that I was not in a postion to make
>    any commitments on behalf of the group, and that we're still trying
>    to make up our minds about what *exactly* the criteria ought to be,
>    was that if someone wanted to add Apache support for their hack of
>    choice, the right approach would be to:
> 
>    a) Supply code, if it isn't easy to do that, and be willing to see
>       it distributed on our terms.
>    b) Persuade the group that it was a good feature for Apache to
>       support, fit well with the distribution, and was worth the risk
>       of taking a CERT advisory on the code.
>    c) Be willing to stick around and support the code when problems
>       came up (as is inevitable in the real world).
> 
>    I hope this isn't too far from the actual (still evolving, I think)
>    consensus. 

100% right.

> 2) It turns out that a *lot* of people want some way of asking a
>    server, "what's changed since Tuesday?".  Netscape actually has
>    implemented exactly that capability in their enterprise and catalog
>    servers; they've just been very quiet about the spec.  Hopefully,
>    in this instance at least, they'll be adopting a more open attitude
>    --- if the stars are right, a description of what they have
>    implemented (which, BTW, the Netscape rep said he wouldn't mind
>    seeing cloned), may be showing up as a W3C draft in the near term.

Hmm, I was under the impression that the Catalog servers were using the 
Harvest model and technology... they hired two of the top three Harvest 
developers from colorado state, with the other one going to @Home for 
their proxy server work.

>    BTW, one of the reasons that people were asking about putting stuff
>    into Apache is that we could potentially provide a vehicle for
>    widespread deployment of this sort of thing if we *did* slot it
>    into our own core distribution.

As a module in the distribution, sure.  :)

> 5) Yet *another* thing that may appear over the medium term is a
>    common full-text inverted index format.  There is an interest on
>    the part of a number of search-engine vendors in defining such a
>    thing, provided that it leaves them with enough information to
>    deploy their own proprietary tricks without exposing them in
>    public.

I though that's what SOIF was... ah well.  

Actually, on my long to-do list is to investigate harvest more deeply, 
seeing if it made sense to build a bridge module between a harvest 
indexer/gatherer and the httpd.  Someone with more time than I may want 
to pursue this, it would be a nice add-on.  

	Brian

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