x-eprint and online preprint servers

[T-8 guests]

> Date: Mon, 27 Feb 95 13:47:12 -0800
> From: Doug Ridgway <ridgway at hertz.UCSD.EDU>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <omniweb-l at omnigroup.com>
> Subject: x-eprint and online preprint servers
>
> Has anyone set up OW to deal with eprints in a nice manner?
> ...
> This is possible with Mosaic under X
> ...
> It may well be possible for us too, has anyone done it?

sadly, still not yet easily configured.
current ow has two files: content.list and encoding.list, that map respectively
Content-type: and Encoding-type: to extensions.
so as a mindless exercise would be possible to mock up custom extension and
app wrapper around trivial script to handle it.
however ken case reports owPR1.? will allow mapping mime/types directly
to script or other executables, so at last this and many other simple things
should be possible.
moreover it will be necessary that they allow passing arguments such as
base url to network aware external apps (e.g. pdf acrobat, hyperps,
or hyperdvi viewers -- not everything one opens is a network vanilla image
or sound file) so that internal relative url's can be handled.
this can be done either as explicit arguments (generalizing mailcap's %s )
or preferably as environment variables (which will generalize to passing
other html metainformation from mime headers -- see
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/HTTP/Object_Headers.html#link ).

additionally it would be useful if ow itself simply called gunzip on
Content-encoding:'s .Z or .gz (or at least allow as configuration option)
rather than pass to Opener or equivalent (ns 3.x comes with gunzip,
ergo less excuse for not having than external imagefilter)


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