[gopher] Re: Gopherspace archive

[Benn Newman <newmanbe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cameron Kaiser wrote:
>> :)). With all the software and binary stuff taken out, I think it should 
>> (nearly) manageable. The index file shouldn't be nearly as big as the 
>> whole archive, I could then make a front end to that (yay for sed and awk!).
> 
> Looking at the size of V-2's index file, I wouldn't count on that if you have
> any kind of useful indexing. Yes, you won't be indexing binaries, but a large
> text file will have *plenty* of keywords, and an index of keywords itself has
> to be indexed by your database engine to be usefully searchable. That'll
> consume a platter or two.
> 
> I haven't decided yet if I can support hosting the archive. This sounds like
> a job for BitTorrent unless the other solution is to unpack the archive and
> let people take the pieces they want instead of downloading the whole thing.
> My uplink is a woeful 608k max ADSL line and the web and gopher servers both
> fight over it on a daily basis.
>
If you would read the paper
(We interrupt this e-mail for an MLA-ish citation!
Lesk, M. E., "Some Applications of Inverted Indexes on the UNIX System."
        Murray Hill, New Jersey: A really long time ago
We now return to our e-mail)
you would find out that there is a maximum number of keys per file/entry 
(or it is supposed to to anyway, documentation not meeting reality adds 
spice to life (or something like that)). I would not be writing the 
engine (I don't hate myself *that* much), just a Gopher front-end. I 
never said it would be "fast."
I think bittorrent is the way to go.
--
Benn Newman


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