I have just installed the Informix(C) database management system package
on gnosys, the NativeNet mailing list relay machine, and would like to
continue with the project, reorienting it toward the soon to be initiated
1993 International Year for the World's Indigenous People, which will be
launched on Human Rights Day, 10 December 1992 at the United Nations
General Assembly in New York. (See the article entitled "INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES YEAR," dated 1 August 92 in the NATIVE-L archives for more details
on the Year itself.)
The database will be accessible via email once it has been created, so it
will work in the same fashion as the TAMVM1 LISTSERV software, with regard
to obtaining articles from the NATIVE-L and NAT-1492 archives, except that
it will be possible to obtain individual records satisfying selected cri-
teria. The full power of the Informix system, which is quite considerable,
will be available to anyone interested in searching the bibliographic data-
base and any others we might later create. The databases will also be able
to be updated remotely by anyone having additional information who has been
authorized to do so.
At the present time, I am studying what will be involved in providing an
interface between the database package and electronic mail, preparatory to
doing whatever software development is required to implement that interface.
I hope that the database will be accessible for testing purposes with about
a month. I'll make an announcement when something is ready.
Meanwhile, I would like to invite anyone who is interested in helping with
this project to drop me a note. I would be glad to add your name and address
to the nn.database mailing list, which will be used for project planning and
implementation. Those who are already on the mailing list, which has not
been used for the past few months need not contact me - but I will send out
a test message, just to determine if all the current addresses are still
valid, and to provide confirmation to those on the list that you are still
part of our team.
The entire archives of the discussion that took place on the nn.database
list is available from gnosys using the following instructions:
There are now two commands, "conflist," which lets you look at the
collection of articles in the online archive for nn.brochure, and
"confget," which will retrieve the text of articles named in a list
report. These commands are implemented by means of a program which
is accessed by sending to the address "almanac@gnosys.svle.ma.us"
which invokes the Almanac program, developed under a grant from the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation at Oregon State University. The Almanac
program is tied directly to the "almanac" address, and will process
any messages it receives. The only thing that should be in the body
of a message sent to the almanac address is one or more lines which
contain as the first word either "conflist" or "confget." There
are actually a few more commands with which I am experimenting, and
which I'll announce later. (Thanks for AISESnet facilitator and long-
time NativeNet subscriber Borries Demeler (demeler@selway.umt.edu) for
discovering Almanac and convincing me to give it a try.)
The "conflist" command works looks like this:
conflist nn database <number of days back to go>
So, if you wanted a list of all articles which had been posted in the
last week, you would just submit a message to the almanac address with
the text:
conflist nn database 7
which requests a listing of article titles for the past seven days.
(If you want a listing of all articles since the beginning of the con-
ference, give a number equal to or greater than the number of days
between 9 March 1992 and today.)
The listing produced will show a few lines from the header of each
article, in the following format:
| 1 Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 20:31:43 GMT
| 1 From: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo)
| 1 Lines: 203
| 1 Subject: Quincentenary database - HELP NEEDED!!
all of which should be self-explanatory.
To retrieve articles, use the "confget" command:
confget nn database <space separated list of articles to get>
So, if you wanted to get the article whose header lines we have just
seen, send a message to almanac containing the command:
confget nn database 1
The "confget" command can be given a series of article numbers, in
no particular order, which represent the articles you would like to
retrieve:
confget nn database 3 4 5 6 7
You can also use the UNIX shell "wildcard" characters to represent
a series of article numbers. Thus, if you wanted to get articles
in the range 90-96, you could submit the command:
confget nn database "[3-7]"
with the same effect as the previous command, or
confget nn database 1 "[3-7]"
to pick up article number 1 as well.
Note that when you use wildcard characters, such as "[" and "]," you
must put the character string which contains them within double-
quotes. In addition to hyphen-separated number ranges enclosed
between square brackets to indicate all digits within that range,
you can use a question mark to select any single digit. Thus:
confget nn database "9?"
would retrieve articles numbered 90-99, and
confget nn database "[12]?"
would get you those with numbers 10 through 29 (if there were that
many articles in the archive, which there currently are not).
To get all articles currently in the archive, use the command:
confget nn database "*"
I hope this description is sufficient to enable you to use these
two commands. Remember to send them to:
Let me know if you have any problems with this facility.
Just to save you the effort of using conflist initially, here is the
current list of articles:
1 Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 20:31:43 GMT
1 From: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo)
1 Lines: 203
1 Subject: Quincentenary database - HELP NEEDED!!
2 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 12:24 CST
2 From: MARC BECKER <kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!MARC>
2 Lines: 7
2 Subject: Columbian (??) database
3 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 14:23:00 GMT
3 From: medina@northeastern.edu (Daniel Medina)
3 Lines: 27
3 Subject: Re: Quincentenary database - HELP NEEDED!!
4 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 19:08:46 -0700
4 From: Pavan Sikka <cs.ualberta.ca!pavan>
4 Lines: 33
4 Subject: database
5 Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 22:29 EST
5 From: betsy@mps.ohio-state.edu (Betsy Feldkamp)
5 Lines: 9
5 Subject: contact with members
6 Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 12:04 CST
6 From: Kerry Miller <KSUVM.KSU.EDU!ASTINGSH>
6 Lines: 52
6 Subject: Re: Help
7 Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 10:15:37 -0800
7 From: cats.UCSC.EDU!guiller (Guillermo Delgado)
7 Lines: 24
7 Subject: saiic-ntwrk
8 Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 15:08:05 EST
8 From: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo)
8 Lines: 78
8 Subject: Re: saiic-ntwrk
9 Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 20:40:42 EST
9 From: titan.ucc.umass.edu!derrico (Peter d'Errico)
9 Lines: 22
9 Subject: Re: Quincentenary database idea
10 Date: Thu, 2 Apr 92 1:01:35 EST
10 From: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo)
10 Lines: 38
10 Subject: Re: Quincentenary database idea
11 Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 13:52:18 -0700
11 From: cats.UCSC.EDU!guiller (Guillermo Delgado)
11 Lines: 79
11 Subject: quincentenary database
12 Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 23:06:04 EDT
12 From: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us (Gary S. Trujillo)
12 Lines: 30
12 Subject: Re: quincentenary database
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst