RFC 1625 (rfc1625) - Page 2 of 7

WAIS over Z39

RFC 1625                 WAIS over Z39.50-1988                 June 1994


   requests, and is available on a variety of UNIX platforms.  The
   server generally runs on a machine containing one or more information
   sources, or WAIS databases.  The protocol, Z39.50-1988, is used to
   connect WAIS clients and servers and is based on the 1988 Version of
   the NISO Z39.50 Information Retrieval Service and Protocol Standard.
   The goal of the WAIS network publishing system is to create an open
   architecture of information clients and servers by using a standard
   computer-to-computer protocol that enables clients to communicate
   with servers.

   WAIS development began in October 1989 with the first Internet
   release occurring in April 1991.  From the beginning, WAIS committed
   to use the Z39.50-1988 standard as the information retrieval protocol
   between WAIS clients and servers.  The implementation is still in use
   today by existing WAIS clients and servers resulting in over 50,000
   users of Z39.50-1988 on the Internet.

2. Purpose

   The purpose of this memo is to initiate a discussion for a migration
   path of the WAIS technology from Z39.50-1988 Information Retrieval
   Service Definitions and Protocol Specification for Library
   Applications [1] to Z39.50-1992 [2] and then to Z39.50-1994 [3].  The
   purpose of this memo is not to provide a detailed implementation
   specification, but rather to describe the high-level design goals and
   functional assumptions made in the WAIS implementation of Z39.50-
   1988.  WAIS use of Z39.50-1992 and Z39.50-1994 standards will be the
   subject of future RFCs.

3. Historical Design Goals of WAIS

   As an aid to understanding the original WAIS implementation and its
   use of Z39.50-1988, the historical design goals of WAIS are presented
   in this section.  Included with each goal is a brief description of
   the assumptions used to meet these design goals.

         1. Provide users access to bibliographic and non-bibliographic
            information, including full-text and images.

   Because Z39.50-1988 grew out of the bibliographic community,
   additional assumptions with the protocol were required to serve non-
   bibliographic information.  They were also necessary to serve
   documents existing in multiple formats (e.g., rtf, postscript, gif,
   etc.).

         2. Keep the client/server interface simple and independent of
            changes in the functionality of the server.




IIIR Working Group