Re: A Very Minor Proposed Addition

> Excerpts from mail: 2-Jan-92 Re: A Very Minor Proposed A..
> Marshall Rose(_at_)dbc(_dot_)mtview (184)


> The very
> obvious: can't you get the same functionality now with
> access-type=ftp? Look at the site value: if it is your
> site, then use the
> local-filesystem, otherwise use
> FTP...

The problem, as I see it, is an ambiguous domain of
locality.  At my site, for example, the thing we call a "local" file system is
visible to a set of about 50 machines.  Yet ftp access would probably point to
one machine, thumper.bellcore.com.  The intent of "local-file" would be "see
if this file exists locally" -- the "site" parameter could be used to
constrain the search, e.g. "site=*.bellcore.com".  

Another problem:
file names aren't always the same for local reference as for ftp, particularly
anonymous ftp.  

So I think there's still a place for local-file.  Am I
wrong?