A Common LISP Hypermedia Server

John C. Mallery
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Keywords: HTML3.0, Interactivity, Technology, Servers.

Hypertext: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/cl-http/server.html

Availability: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/cl-http/home-page.html

Abstract

A World-Wide Web (WWW) server was implemented in Common LISP in order to facilitate exploratory programming in the interactive hypermedia domain and to provide access to complex research programs, particularly artificial intelligence systems. The server was initially used to provide interfaces for document retrieval and for email servers. More advanced applications include interfaces to systems for inductive rule learning and natural-language question answering. Continuing research seeks to more fully generalize automatic form-processing techniques developed for email servers to operate seamlessly over the Web. The conclusions argue specifically that presentation-based interfaces and more sophisticated form processing should be moved into the clients in order to reduce the load on servers and provide more advanced interaction models for users. More generally, the rapid prototyping features of Common LISP are now available to the WWW research community for quick mock-ups to test out new ideas.

The paper is structured as follows:


Proceedings of The First International Conference on The World-Wide Web, Geneva: CERN, May 25, 1994.