xwaisq is an X Windows based client for the WAIS system. It is the application used for modifying and submitting questions to a WAIS server.
This application is heavily dependant on the X Toolkit resource mechanism. Questions are stored to the user’s "questionDirectory" (usually ~/wais-questions) and can be retrieved using this application.
A question is posed in three parts:
1. Search words, labeled "Tell me about"
2. Sources, labeled "In Sources"
3. Relevance Feedback, labeled "Similar to"
Search words can be entered into the "Tell me about" frame by simply typing into the frame. Pressing return will initiate the search (however, if you have not yet specified a source, you’ll be warned, and no search will actually occur).
To add a source to a question, press "Add Source", and select the source from the popup menu. To remove a source from the question, select the source, and click on the "Delete Source" button.
To add a document to a question, select the document in the Result Document list, and press "Add Document". To remove a document from the question, select the document, and click on the "Delete Document" button.
When you have you question completely defined, you can search the sources by pressing the "Search" button, or <RETURN> in the "Tell me about" window.
To view a resulting document, select the document and press the "View" button. A new Document window will appear. If you’d like to see the keywords matched, press the "Find Key" button. To save the document to a file, press the "Save to File" button. When you are finished with the document, press "Done" button in the Document window.
When you are finished with the question close its window using the "Done" button. Any changes to the question will be written back to the question directory.
Xwais application Default file.
$(HOME)/wais-questions location of saved questions. $(HOME)/wais-sources location
for personal sources.
The following resources may be changed to modify the default behavior of the application. I recommend you look at the resource file Xwais to get a better idea of all the resources available.
Xwais*questionDirectory: ~/wais-questions/
Xwais*documentDirectory: ~/wais-documents/
Xwais*userSourceDirectory: ~/wais-sources/
Xwais*commonSourceDirectory
Xwais*seedWords
Xwais*initialSource
Xwais*questionName
Xwais*DoSearch
The last four resources are usually unspecified. Under special circumstances they may be used to fully specify a question without a file.
xwaisq is heavily dependant on it’s resources. If it is unable to find the proper resource file, it will most likey become unusable.
xwaisq has no limit to resizing, so if the window is resized too small, some buttons may be lost.
xwais(1) , waisindex(1) , waisserver(1)