Conference hydra::amiga_v1

4136.0. "Tips for navigating the net" by STAR::ROBINSON () Wed Sep 19 1990 18:02

 This started out as a continuation of note 4011, but I think it deserves
 a new topic, especially in light of the new cleanup/efficiency fever in 
 4117. Some of this is simple stuff but worth mentioning.

 When I read about, hear about or remember some program I always check
 through the Fish disk descriptions first. Here is how I find something 
 in a Fish disk from a VMS account.

Searching
--------- 

 >From 4011.14
 >  By the way, I did a directory of TAPE:: looking for XPRK*.* and
 >      found it in the RECALLED subdirectory.
  
 Since TAPE is so overwhelming, I keep copies of the Fish disk contents files
 in a local directory, I just extract them from this conf. when the list 
 comes out. I name them all the same, FFxxx-xxx.LIS, Where the xs are the first
 and last disk described. Then I just search them whenever I want something,
 or read about something I might want to grab from TAPE. I do something like 
 this:

 $ search ff*.lis "xprkermit"

MYDISK:[ROBINSON.AMI]FF321-330.LIS;1

XprKermit       An Amiga shared library which provides Kermit file 

 $

 Then I just pop the contents file, FF321-330.LIS in this case, into my editor 
 for a full description and the number of the disk it is on.  Then I just
 copy the disk over from node TAPE. 

 You can also get most of the fish disk contents files from 

   TAPE::USER2:[AMIGA.FISH.DOC]

 Bookreader
 ----------

 If I know the name of what I want or the number of the disk I want to 
 look at, I fire up the DECWindows BOOKREADER versions of FF_CAT and 
 FF_CAT_V2, also available on TAPE: (newest in [UPLOAD]?). This has an 
 index and TOC but no search capabilities. 

 Anyone else have tips for dealing with the volume of stuff available?

 Dave