Re: TFM, no-one.

Bradley Hughes (brad@nospam.arrakis.com.au)
Thu, 18 Jan 1996 14:08:56 +1100

Ryan said:
>then why not (c) Write TFM on the Web? We could put TFM on the Web and
>control access to only progsoc members. (This may be a technical problem.
> Can Java do this? How about nonJava netscape or whatever the correct
>term is?)

Control of access to a WebTFM could be implemented with user authentication
on the WWW server. Create a generic progsoc user account and give all
progsoc members the password. However, with all these people knowing the
same password, it wouldn't be very long before at least some non-members
knew it too.

With more administrative overhead, a registration system could be set up
such that each member is assigned a unique membership number upon joining
or renewing their membership, which they would then use to register for a
user account to access the pages. The membership numbers and possibly
student IDs of each member could be placed on the server to allow the
registration system to verify that a particular registration is genuine.
That way, each user would have their own self-selected password. There's
no need for Java.

I support Joshua's view that a print version of TFM is a good thing, as it
is handy to refer to a book, and you can take a book home with you. Many
people have no WWW access at home.

I also believe that it should be on the Web, as this would allow additional
functionality to be incorporated, such as indexing with a search engine
(eg. Glimpse).

later,
Brad.

---
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