Web Pages Via E-Mail
News from The MESH: June 1995
Using the WEB via Email
Well if you don't have direct access to the Internet to use World Wide Web,
you can do the next best thing - use email according to Ron Baalke from JPL.
There is a list server that allows you to access home pages by using email.
You simply send a request to listserv@mail.w3.org, and it will return to you
via email the contents of the requested home page.
Example messages to listserv@mail.w3.org:
send http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/
send http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
send http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/saturn/
Ron says you can even request images and animations. The list server will
return uuencode binary files and email them to you - you only need to
uudecode them to convert them back to binary files.
For more information on the list server, look at the following
home page:
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MailRobot/send.html
or send the following email message to listserv@mail.w3.org:
send http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MailRobot/send.html
Arthur Secret tells us how to do it.:
To get help, just send a mail with the body WWW. Please mail to
agora-bug@mail.w3.org if you have a problem
Retrieving WWW Documents through mail. NOTE This document is intended to be
retrieved through mail, and may look funny with a normal W3 browser. To get
it through mail, just send a mail to listserv@mail.w3.org with the body WWW.
RETRIEVAL OF DOCUMENTS THROUGH MAIL
Welcome to the World-Wide Web!
To retrieve a document, you just have to specify its "address", called a
"Uniform Resource Locator" (URL). For example, the URL of this document is
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Agora/Help.html. This means that to get it,
you just have to send a mail to listserv@mail.w3.org, with whatever subject
you like, the body of the mail being:
SEND http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Agora/Help.html
If this is the first time you enter this new medium, we suggest you look at
the following documents:
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
The World-Wide Web Initiative[1]
http://www.charm.net/~web/Vlib.html
World-Wide Web Development[2]
http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html
World-Wide Web Frequently Asked Questions[3]
In this new media, most documents are hypertext. In such a case you
will notice numbers in square brackets such as [12] next to some special
words. This means you may access a new document, hopefully related to the
word(s) preceding the [12]. If you are interested to see this new document,
you will find at the bottom of the document containing the [12] a list of
URLs, next to numbers. Then, just copy the URL next to [12], and paste it to
the body of a mail you send to listserv@mail.w3.org . If you are lazy, there
is another way to retrieve W3 documents through email: just reply to
listserv@mail.w3.org , and specify in the body the number(s) you are
interested in. This program will figure out which document you are interested
in by looking at the subject header that you then have to preserve.
Example 1
You'd like to know more about the World-Wide Web Initiative ? All
right, the number between brackets is 1. Let's look at the bottom
of this page. 1 corresponds to
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html .
So you have to send a mail to listserv@mail.w3.org with the body:
SEND http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
Example 2
You still have some questions on World-Wide Web ? All right, the
appropriate documents are "World-Wide Web Developpment" and
"Frequently Asked Questions". They have the numbers 2 and 3 in brackets next
to them. So you reply to the mail from listserv@mail.w3.org that you are
currently reading, and write in
the body:
2 3
Note: If your mail tool truncates subject lines, it may be useful for you to
know that this robot needs only the part (URL: ...) to determine what the
numbers refer to.
Commands related to the retrieval of W3 documents
Everything appearing in [] below is optional; everything appearing in is
mandatory; all arguments are case insensitive. Only the first 10 lines of
requests will be processed.
send 
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