Re: finger url, copyright caches (again)

Michael A. Dolan (miked@CERF.NET)
Wed, 24 Aug 1994 08:56:19 -0700

At 04:17 PM 8/24/94 +0200, Reed Wade wrote:
>
>>Is the finger URL really even needed, except for ease of use? It
>>seems to me a 10 line perl CGI script would take care of it with a
>>calling of . <a href = "http:/cgi-bin/finger?[name@university.edu]">
>>
>>-grumpy-old-nickg
>
>
>Is it _really_ needed? No, but for a different reason. I wanted
>this for end users who want to have pointers to finger servers.
>Setting up more servers (finger gateways) is anti-scalable and
>doubles the load on the net. I'd much prefer the gopher hack to
>that.
>
>But yes, ease of use is the only actual reason for it.

Reed, don't be so modest.....

The same argument could be applied to any non-http URL - why not a CGI for
everything; and then, necessarily, an httpd gateway in every pot ?

There are, and will always be, many people that don't have httpd's, gopherd's,
etc just waiting to be customized for their needs. Thus, while the
server-side solution is elegant, it is not always even an option.

This thinking will either force all clients to embody a proxying httpd, or
for there to be proliferated, fully-functional, public httpd's; neither
of which seems likely, or even desirable.

Mike
-----------------------------------------------
Michael A. Dolan <mailto:miked@cerf.net>
TerraByte Technology (619) 445-9070, FAX -8864