Tutorial on Current and Future Web(NII) Technologies as the basis of Distance Education and the Virtual University HPDC4 Washington DC August 1,1995 NPAC Geoffrey Fox, Wojtek Furmanski, Marek Podgorny with Gang Cheng, Roman Markowski Syracuse University 111 College Place Syracuse NY 13244-4100 Abstract ofVirtual University and the Web/NII Tutorial We discuss current NII technologies including HTML, HTTP, MIME,CGI,PERL4 and Web search engines and the changes expected by including Understood if not Web Integrated conecpts such as RDBMS, Multimedia servers, Compression, Collaboration, GIS/terrain rendering, collaboration(MOO), Agents, PDA's, security, Opendoc, SGML,HyTime, CORBA,OLE, Windows95/NT Hardware trends such as ATM, ISDN, Wireless Integrating Vision such as WebWindows, WebWork(metacomputing), Personal servers, Televirtuality New Web approachs such as Java, VRML, PERL5, Metadata, Webservers Education and other application requirements Current Web/ATM based education including Syracuse's CPS600, Phy105 and Living Schoolbook projects New Web integration ideas including WebTools, Webtop Publishing, WebDBMS, WebSpace, WebFlow, and the interpolating WebScript Some Current NII/Web Technologies -- I Clients (such as Mosaic and Netscape) support browsing of hyperlinked documents but have no internal interactive/compute capability Servers read HTTP and deliver requested service to client HTML -- a document format supporting hyperlinks HTTP -- a Transport Protocol defining Interaction between Web servers and Clients Some Current NII/Web Technologies -- II MIME -- a data format allowing agent-like (extended email) communication CGI -- a standard interface allowing sophisticated server extensions PERL -- a rapid prototyping language(script) aimed at text and file manipulation Web Search engines such as YAHOO, HARVEST, WAIS -- early distributed database access technology supporting search and indexing net.Thread, WebTools, RealAudio are early Web Interactive services Some Technologies to be Integrated into the Web -- I Relational databases -- Oracle,DB2 have Web Interfaces Collaboration from Console Units (PIctureTel, CLI), Desktop (SGI Inperson) to MOOs Compression from MPEG and Wavelet to host of proprietary solutions -- a faction of 20 to 200 saving in space and bandwidth Geographical Information Systems Security will enable commerce on the Internet -- essential for Defence as well Some Technologies to be Integrated into the Web -- II ATM, ISDN, Wireless, Satellite will be hybrid physical implementation of NII CORBA, Opendoc, OLE, SGML, Hytime are critical file and document standards High Performance Multimedia servers to enable digital information delivery on demand Data transport from MPI/MSGWAY/PVM to AAL to CBR/VBR Windows95/NT -- the last of the the non social(Web) operating systems -- will follow dinosaurs(IBM mainframes) into extinction Personal Digital Assistants -- WebNewtons done right -- Telescript (agent based communication) and Magic Cap operating system Overall NII Integrating Vision WebWindows -- the open nonproprietary operating system of future supplanting UNIX, Windows95/NT, Apple etc. -- manages with a single interface all machines either individually or collectively on the NII WebWork -- Implements Computing for both Simulation and Information underneath WebWindows -- the correct implementation of HPCC ideas such as HPF,MPI with pervasive technologies Personal Servers -- Newton was correct but too early. The Web is a server - server technology Televirtuality -- All Web Users are linked into a single virtual world Critical Emerging Web Technologies Java -- an interpreted C++ like language (script) allowing fully interactive clients which execute applets. Has full set of classes to make clients such as HOTJava. Licensed by Netscape VRML -- a 3 dimensional HTML allowing universal description of physical objects and allowing interchange of virtual worlds, commercial product designs etc. PERL5 -- an extension of PERL4 with full object oriented characteristics and extended pointer(array) constructs -- allows construction of Web Software obeying good software engineering practices Multithreaded WebServers integrating current Web, Compute and digital multimedia delivery services -- future Enterprise Systems Emerging Higher Level Web Integration Concepts -- I WebTools -- Early NPAC Prototype of WebWindows Equivalent to Program Manager with Navigation, File manipulation, Mail WebDeskTop Publishing -- an early killer application under WebWindows supplanting Word, Wordperfect, LOTUS123 , Persuasion etc. Java allows clear powerful implementation. WebRDBMS -- Integration of Relational and Distributed databases with both agent based heuristics, formal indices and free text search Metadata -- Common attributes to allow integration and search of heterogeneous databases Emerging Higher Level Web Integration Concepts -- II WebSpace -- Televirtual implementation of full 3D MOO like environment building on LabSpace at Argonne for the virtual scientific laboratory WebFlow -- NPAC prototype of Web based extended Khoros/AVS supporting dataflow linkage of computers for simulation and people and data for workflow management WebScript -- the evolving Middleware of scripted languages including extended PERL5, Java, Telescript, MOVIE(NPAC compute oriented script) etc. What is WebWindows ? Like UNIX or MS-DOS or Windows 3.1(NT,95), WebWindows is an operating system for a "computer" The "computer" is a metacomputer consisting of the 50,000 Webservers (currently--eventually hundreds of millions) on Internet for the World Wide Web WebWindows can also be used for the metacomputer (collection of heterogeneous networked computers) which is a business enterprise system We consider such an application as a collection of Webservers where we use Web technology to manage business information system. suprisingly many companies looking at Web as alternative to Lotus Notes WebWindows is a multi-client multi-server technology Clients are Mosaic or Netscape and soon HotJava or better browsers Servers are NCSA compatible HTTP servers with MUCH additional functionality coming from so-called CGI capability -- written in PERL or C++ typically Current Components of WebWindows Includes World wide multimedia File access and dissemination -- current immediate Browser Services Initial Websearch and agent technology such as World Wide Web Worm, Lycos,Yahoo, Harvest etc. WebTools is initial NPAC Project to illustrate future WebWindows File management (create,delete etc.) -- Implemented in WebTools Hyperspace Navigation -- Preliminary Prototype in WebTools Ultimate Navigation built around agents, knowledge stored in caches (databases) and powerful search capabilities HTML editor -- simple version in WebTools with Spell capability Electronic Mail -- Webtools version very high functionality Also has prototype WebWork capability for Web collective Search and PERL software engineering WebWindows development team will run using a network of WebTools servers -- each user will run personal server Is WebWindows an Operating System ? It does not provide multi-threading/multiu-user support, memory management, device drivers and such base services -- these are supplied by UNIX, Windows or Mac O/S Rather it provides equivalent of higher level O/S services such as available under UNIX shell or applications supplied under Windows In the future one will build applications for WebWindows not UNIX / PC windows etc. Very interesting is WebWindows version of Lotus Notes to support Business Enterprise systems -- build from Web components such as those prototyped in WebTools Include Personal Digital Assistant, Collaboration, Workflow etc.