What Does The MurkWorks Gopher+ Client Allow Me To Do? The MurkWorks Gopher+ Client allows the user to contact the thousands of gopher servers on the global Internet, and retrieve the information stored on those servers. Once retrieved, this information can be viewed or downloaded. What Is Gopher? Gopher is an easy to use, "point and click" information retrieval tool that allows its user to navigate the global Internet from the comfort of a menu. Without the aid of a tool such as gopher, successfully locating and retrieving information from the Internet can be a formidable task - for both the first time user and veteran alike. Many sites on the Internet make programs, information, searchable indices, and more available to the rest of the world by running a gopher server. There are literally thousands of these sites. A gopher client is used to contact these distributed gopher servers and then bring the selected information back to user, all via a uniform interface. The MurkWorks Gopher+ Client is one such client. What User Interface To The Internet Does The Gopher+ Client Provide? The MurkWorks Gopher+ Client supports an ASCII, color/graphic ANSI, and RIPscrip interface. In all modes selections are made using hot keys or cursor keys. Additionally, in RIP mode the interface is truly point and click when used with a mouse and a compatible terminal program, such as RIPTerm or QmodemPro. How Do I Use The MurkWorks Gopher+ Client? All selections are "point and click" in nature, and are made via hot keys, cursor keys, or mouse (using RIP). All functions available at a given time are displayed on a button bar at the bottom of the screen. Available gopher selections are displayed on the body of the screen. To select a function or gopher item, either press the letter that precedes a given item, or hi-lite the item using the cursor keys and press enter. If using RIP, simply click on your selection. Depending on the function selected, or the data being displayed, the button bar changes to indicate the choices available. What follows is a listing of the functions that can be selected in each mode, and what those functions do. A list of functions and abbreviated descriptions can be found in the context sensitive help at all times simply by selecting the 'help' function. o General Functions Available In Most Modes: A..M SELECT ITEM - selects the item preceded by the letter. Alternatively, the cursor keys can be used to select and item. Under RIP, the user can also click on an item to select it. ? HELP - displays context sensitive help throughout the Gopher+ Client. Q QUIT - prompts for confirmation before exiting the Gopher+ Client. If the user selects 'No', then they are returned to where they were prior to selecting quit. P PREVIOUS - returns the user to the previous gopher selection directory that was displayed. If pressed repeatedly, the user will be returned to the root gopher selection directory. 1,2,3... GO TO PAGE NUMBER - when a multi-page gopher selection directory listing is displayed, a given page number can be chosen to go to that page. > PAGE DOWN - when a multi-page gopher selection directory listing is displayed, page down can be used to go to the next page. If page down is selected on the last available page, the first page will be displayed. < PAGE UP - when a multi-page gopher selection directory listing is displayed, page up can be used to go to the previous page. If page up is selected on the first available page, the last page will be displayed. This should not be confused with the 'previous' function which displays the previous selection directory listing. o Main Selection Screen Functions: / SEARCH - prompts for a regular expression string to search the current gopher selection directory for. If the string matches one or more of the items available in the directory, they are displayed for selection. If no matches are found a message is displayed. [ BOOKMARK FUNCTIONS - each user can have a customizable list of items for which they might wish to return to. This list bookmarks can be used, added to, or removed from under this selection. The list of bookmarks is retained between gopher sessions. \ HISTORY - allows direct selection of previously visited gopher directories. The most recently visited gopher selection directory is located at the top of the list. These selections are not retained between gopher sessions. o Search Selection Directory Items: When selected, first a dialog box appears in the middle of the screen asking for an input string to match against the current directory listing. The user can abort the search by pressing enter without having entered a search string, or by pressing the escape key. To complete the search once a string has been entered, press the enter key. The search engine is case insensitive, and supports matching against regular expression strings. Once a match has been made, the search selection screen functions in the same manner as the main selection screen. o Bookmark Functions: If bookmark entries have been added previously, they appear under this screen. Previously entered bookmark entries can then be selected. Additionally, bookmark entries can be added to or deleted from the bookmark list. [ ADD ITEM - displays the current gopher selection directory and allows for an item to be selected from the directory and added to the bookmark list. Alternatively, a pointer to the current directory can be added to the bookmark list. ] DELETE ITEM - allows for an entry in the current bookmark list to be deleted. o Abstract/View Select Functions: There are two variants of gopher that exist. These variants affect the information available about a given selection. The original gopher protocol, known as Gopher, only provides for one view per selection. The newer protocol, known as Gopher+, is capable of providing multiple views (say english and spanish, or text and graphic representation) of a given item. Additionally, Gopher+ selections can include a short abstract on an item's contents. B..I When a Gopher+ item is selected, the Abstract/View screen is presented which displays the abstract, if any, and the views available. The user can select the desired view by pressing the letter that precedes the view, using the cursor keys, or by clicking on it (RIP only). If the selected view is viewable on-line (ie, text), then it will be displayed on the screen. If the selected view is not viewable on-line (ie, graphics), then the item will downloaded to the users' computer via the Zmodem transfer protocol. = MORE INFORMATION - displays technical information about the selected item such as what gopher server it's located on, what the path to the item is, and who administers that item. o Text Viewer Functions: If an item is selected that can be displayed on-line (ie, text), it is displayed in the text viewer. The text of the selected item is displayed as soon as it starts arriving, so there is no need to wait for the full text to be received before viewing begins. > PAGE DOWN - displays the next page of text for the selected item. < PAGE UP - displays the previous page of text for the selected item. D LINE DOWN - displays the next line of text for the selected item. U LINE UP - displays the previous line of text for the selected item. T TOP - go to the top of the received text. B BOTTOM - go to the bottom of the received text. Z ZMODEM - send the currently displayed text file to the users' computer using the Zmodem transfer protocol. C CANCEL - cancels retrieval of the remainder of the selected item. Text already received is unaffected. o Searchable Index/CSO: Certain gopher items are gateways to searchable information indices or CSO phone books. This is the interface used to access these items. At least one search field must contain data in order for the search to proceed. A..M SELECT FIELD - choose the search field preceded by a given letter to enter a search key into. S BEGIN SEARCH - begin searching the index/CSO database for the specified search keys. o Zmodem Download: If you select 'Zmodem' from the text viewer, or a binary file from a gopher selection directory, the Zmodem Download interface will be displayed. A ENTER FILE NAME - gopher automatically suggests a filename for the data to be transferred. If you wish to call the file something different, select this choice and enter a new name. You name specified must follow standard DOS naming conventions (8.3, no spaces, etc...) D DOWNLOAD - begin the Zmodem download of the selected gopher item. How Do I Get Items Of Interest From Gopher To My Computer? The MurkWorks Gopher+ client has the Zmodem transfer protocol built in. So, transferring a file from a gopher server to your local computer is as easy as selecting 'download'.