In <9208191834.AA17577 at genbank.bio.net> mathog at seqvax.bio.caltech.edu
(David Mathog) writes:
>I've just spent some time messing with NCBI retrieve. The turnaround time
>for a request varied from 2 hours (17:00 PST) to 5 minutes (9:30 PST),
>which is fast enough.
>>However, the service is a bit schizophrenic - it tries to be both a search
>service and a retrieval service, and so is not really very good at either.
I played with the retrieve service last week and I agree with David heartily.
Perhaps I am spoiled by the GenBank IRX server, and I would always prefer an
interactive search, but it seemed like a real pain in the neck to use. David's
suggestions for separate search and retrieve services is an excellent start to
improve the NCBI server. The "# of lines" information is crucial. Also the
SEPARATE option for the retrieve service is an important addition.
Jerry Learn
