This document should give you enough information to get you going, and when you are not going, who to complain to.
Getting Started
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To use WAIStation (the nifty Mac interface to WAIS), you have to get a bunch-o-software installed on your machine (including MacTCP. This will require that you switch from the normal NCSA Telnet to a version called Telnet-MacTCP).
If you have problems, contact Harry Morris (morris@think.com). If that fails, talk to Brewster Kahle (brewster@think.com). The number for Thinking Machines is (617) 234-1000.
Ñ Make sure that MacTCP is installed and working on your machine. We've included NCSA Telnet-MacTCP to help test this. MacTCP itself is available from APDA.
Ñ Set your ram cache to at least 32k and turn it on. This is on your Control Panel in the "General" slot.
Ñ You need at least 2 Megabytes of memory. To check this, go to the Finder and select "About the Finder" in the Apple menu.
Ñ Drag a copy of the "WAIS" folder onto your Macintosh hard disk.
Ñ Start up WAIStation from your hard disk.
Ñ WAIStation will ask if you want to find its Preferences file or create a new one. Choose create a new one.
If it is not immediately obvious what to do, there is documentation in this folder. It is the Microsoft Word file called WAIStation User Guide 0.57.
Ñ In order to use the sample sources we have provided, you will need to Open all the sources in the Sources folder once, then close them. You can do this easiest by selecting them all and choosing "Open" from the File menu.
Ñ After each source is open, simply close it. It will now be listed in your Sources window.
Ñ Create a new Question, and drag a source to it from the Sources window to the "In these sources" part of the Question.
Ñ Save the question in the Questions folder.
If you have any comments, compliments, or gripes, please send them to bug-wais@think.com. We really want to know. Have fun!
Using The Directory Of Servers
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The directory of servers is a server that serves descriptions of other servers. Use it to find the latest servers on the network!
Ñ start up a new question
Ñ add the directory-of-servers source to your question
Ñ type in something like "tell me what servers are available over tcp/ip" in the key word window
Ñ run the question - you'll get back a list of servers in the Results field
Ñ select one and double click it. The source's description will pop up in a
window.
Ñ select "save". It will appear in your "Sources" window, and will be available for searching.
Ñ now you can use it. start a new question, add the new server, and ask it a question
Many people ask "How to I find all the sources in the directory-of-servers?" There currenly is no way to do it directy from WAIStation. The best suggestion we have is to telnet to quake.think.com and log in as wais. You will be presented with a vt100 interface to wais, which contains a list of all the sources in the directory-of-servers. Once you know what sources are out there, you can use the directory-of-servers from WAIStation.
Trouble Shooting
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There are a few known bugs in the current version of WAIStation:
Ñ WAIStation must be run from the same disk as the System Folder
Ñ To Run under System 7
- you need MacTCP 1.0.1 or latter
- virtual memory must be turned off (this may be fixed in MacTCP 1.1)
- you must have a copy of your MacTCP control panel in the System
Folder, not in the Control Panels folder where System 7 places it.
About this Folder
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The master copy is maintained in the /public/wais directory on think.com.
WAIS folder: the latest greatest version of WAIStation, plus the User Guide, and folders to store sources.
