INTERNET ACCESS TO THE OXFORD TEXT ARCHIVE As of this month, it is now possible to access machines here on JANET directly from the InterNet. As of today, it is also (ipso facto) possible directly to transfer files from a machine here to any other machine on the InterNet, without specifying a password, filling in a form, or any of that other stuff that some people find so difficult. We'd like to start making some -- not all -- of the Oxford Text Archive's materials available in this way. There are two constraints. Firstly, we cannot distribute material that does not belong to us. But there is a small quantity of material we can distribute, which we believe to be in the public domain. Secondly, we want to begin as we intend to go on: by distributing materials in TEI SGML only. But there is a small number of (mostly very large) files which we will make available 'as is' to test the procedure immediately. We'd appreciate your comments as to how useful/reliable you've found the procedure. Here's what you need to know: >From a machine on the Internet, you should type FTP ox.ac.uk << N.B. this is *not* VAX.OX.AC.UK! or, since we're not in many people's official name tables yet, FTP 129.67.1.165 When connected, give username anonymous and supply your name as a password. Unless otherwise stated, all files contain plain uncompressed character data The following files are currently available in the directory ota: textarchive.sgml List of OTA Holdings as of 1 November in SGML textarchive.list Same list, no SGML tags textarchive.form Text Archive Order form The following are currently available in the directory ota/dicts 710 Directory containing the three files making up the 'computer-usable' dictionary derived from 1) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 18:06 GMT From: Oxford Text Archive Subject: Internet Access to the Oxford Text Archive OALDCE by Roger Mitton 1054 Directory containing the MRC Psycholinguistic Database, complete with manuals and simple C programs for accessing 1) Date: Sat, 8 Feb 92 18:06 GMT From: Oxford Text Archive Subject: Internet Access to the Oxford Text Archive the database info File containing brief descriptive details of all machine readable dictionaries currently held in the Archive, with illustrative examples from each The following files are currently available in the directory ota/tei vm2tar.Z The public domain ARC SGML parser: complete source code and documentation for UNIX systems. (This version has been modified to support TEI dtds; it is in compressed TAR format) So, for example, to get the plain shortlist, you'd type ftp 129.67.1.165 anonymous myname cd ota get textarchive.list bye Internet access is regarded here as a privilege, not a right. Please don't overuse it! And please remember that this is an experimental facility, which may be withdrawn or substantially modified at any time without notice. Lou Burnard Alan Morrison Oxford Text Archive 5 Feb 92 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Linguist List: Vol-3-125.