Put on a happy face!

[Jon Knight]

On Tue, 20 Feb 1996, Brian Kelly wrote:
> > I don't know whether this is appropriate for the US librarians reading
> > your column, but my Good Thing(tm) is that I discovered a CD-ROM yesterday
> > that is a joy to network.  Yes, you read that right, a _joy_ to network. 
> > Its the Guardian Online (a UK newspaper).  Why is it a joy?  Simple; the
> > client software runs straight off the CD-ROM so no need to install a whole
> > bunch of stuff on our already overfull hard discs, it runs in a reasonable
> 
> Ah, Jon, but isn't that the wrong model.  Shouldn't the CD ROM
> contain the data, which is independent of the user interface.
> Although the user interface might look wonderful today, 
> how long will it be before it dates?

I agree completely; I'd _really_ love it if the CD-ROMs just held the raw 
data and we were free to index it ourselves, supply our own clients, etc, 
etc.  However, back in the Real World (:-) ), things just aren't like 
that and so its just nice to find a CD-ROM that actually has software 
that works well over the network first time.  We must be thankful for 
small mercies! :-)

Tatty bye,

Jim'll

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jon "Jim'll" Knight, Researcher, Sysop and General Dogsbody, Dept. Computer
Studies, Loughborough University of Technology, Leics., ENGLAND.  LE11 3TU.
* I've found I now dream in Perl.  More worryingly, I enjoy those dreams. *