About ACEDB Browsing
One of the major advantages of ACEDB is its ability to let a user
"graze" or browse a database without prior knowledge of its content.
The large number of hypertext links between objects make it possible
to arrive at a particular destination via many alternative paths.
This mode of learning--"I'll know it when I see it"-- is particularly
powerful for finding information when you're not quite sure what you
want, or for general discovery. It can also be used in conjunction
with queries to narrow the range of potential starting points for
exploration. An Introduction
to ACEDB describes ACEDB databases and models on AGIS.
ACEDB was designed from the beginning as a hypertext database, so it
translates very naturally to a World Wide Web environment. The
translation is accomplished using either the client/server
features of ACEDB 4.x (aceclient,
aceserver,
Aceobj.pm,
and AceWWW.pm).
Once an ACEDB database is connected to the World Wide Web, its data
can be linked to other databases. Thus the scope of browsing is very large, and
includes data at AGIS and at other sites around the world.