This is a DUA interface, using LDAP, that conforms to the latest (not yet)
Internet Draft for the Whois++ Architecture. It does NOT support the indexing
service also proposed under Whois++.

It is a gateway to X.500 (similar to the finger and gopher gateways) which
allows the user to access the directory via a mechanism that they are
comfortable with and/or have access to. The real Directory Service (and the
only practical large scale distributed directory service) is provided by the
underlying X.500 service. This implementation is not an endorsement of Whois++
but I recognise that there are users whose only interface to a directory
service is via a whois client. It therefore attempts to service these users,
much like the other two gateways.

Comments on the Whois++ specification should be sent to the IETF Whois and
Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS) Working Group. The e-mail address
of the group is ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu, to be added to the mailing list send
a request to ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu. Comments about this program
should be directed to the discussion list ldap-whois++@itd.adelaide.edu.au,
(send a message to ldap-whois++-request@itd.adelaide.edu.au to join). I will
post bug fix announcements to this list.

Mark Prior
6 May 93