peter-s@MOLBIO.CBS.UMN.EDU ("Peter N. Saurugger") (08/09/90)
I have followed the discussion with quite a bit of interest. I remember a similar discussion during last years Protein Society Meeting in Seattle - the Epub proponents "lost" ... Here is how I would envision an electronic publishing system: (1) Once a week (a month, ...) I receive an email message with a listing of the latest set of citations. (If I get more than that, I will not be able to read most of them) (2) I send email requests for the abstracts of selected articles to an email server. Alternatively, all the abstracts should be available through ftp. (3) The articles, formatted in PostScript, are available via ftp. (4) Open Domain software should be available at the ftp site for previewing and some management of the citations. This would keep the amount of traffic sent via email down (of course one could try to send uuencoded X11 raster files ?!). The user, whether on a Sun, A Mac, a DOS etc. machine, has to have a high resolution screen, access to the net, and a PostScript display program. Such a system can be had for ca. $4,000.- (for IBM clones); ca. $5,000.- for a Sun (or some other workstations) and $5,000.- + for a Mac (forget the SE .) There are operating costs involved at the email server/ftp site. But how much can be saved by avoiding to printing/mailing process? While one cannot expect everyone who is interested to have such a system at hand, I found that most new computer purchases of faculty here have the above mentioned capabilities. Those who do not have these capabilities will have to get them; my personal experience is that it is impossible to support every format that is used - so why even bother e.g. with anything else but PostScript (which Editor or Publishing Program does *not* support this format ???) -- Peter N. Saurugger, Director voice: (612) 625-3744 Molecular Biology Computing Center email: peter-s@molbio.cbs.umn.edu Coll.Biol.Sci., Univ. of MN