Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 10:12:05 -0600 From: BITNET list server at UA1VM (1.8a) Subject: File: "MAP18 LESSON" MAP18: GOPHER (PART ONE) "I have found that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking for something and finding something else on the way." -- Franklin P. Adams When I was in elementary school, I was a rather "spirited" child. I remember constantly asking my teachers why I had to learn long division when I could just as easily use a calculator to come up with the answer. Needless to say, may parents heard from my teachers ... often. What does this story have to do with this lesson? Well, I am proud to announce that we have just finished learning the "long division" of the Internet (FTP). This week we are going to start using the "calculator" of the Internet -- a client/server package called "Gopher". (If you have Level One connectivity, I will show you on Friday how to access Gopher using nothing but E-mail!!) Gopher was developed at the University of Minnesota, and it is a menu-driven application that allows you to hop around the globe looking for information. Gopher's interconnected menus allow you to "burrow" deeper and deeper until you find the information that you are looking for. Imagine that I decide to gather together all of the information that I can find about power line-chomping squirrels, and I put that information into a menu-driven library. Also imagine that someone else who is interested in the uses of yak fur creates a menu-driven yak fur library. If these two menu-driven libraries are interconnected, anyone who has access to my squirrel library will also have access to the yak fur library (and vice versa). Now imagine if THOUSANDS of these specialized libraries were interconnected. That is what Gopher does, and all of these interconnected Gopher libraries make up what is called "Gopherspace." Think of Gopherspace as being a huge stadium filled with information on a myriad of different topics. If you have ever been to a major sporting event, you will remember that your ticket to that event told you which gate you had to pass through to enter the stadium. Once you entered the stadium, however, you were free to roam around, buy a hot dog, and make fun of the opponent's fans. You had access to EVERYTHING in that stadium, regardless of which gate you entered through. Gopherspace is set up the same way. Your "gate" is the client that you use to enter Gopherspace. Once are in, however, you are free to roam around and take advantage of everything that is inside the "stadium". Why is Gopher so special? Well, unlike Archie which just tells you where the information that you want can be found, Gopher actually goes out, GETS the information that you want, and puts the information on your computer screen! (You could even say that Gopher actually "goes fer" the information that you want). A TOUR OF GOPHERSPACE I'll explain Gopher access and Gopher commands tomorrow. Today, I want to take you on a little tour of "Gopherspace." We are going to start our tour at GOPHER.SQUIRREL.COM -- a gopher site that I have totally made up for this tour. Remember, it does not matter where you start -- as long as you are in Gopherspace, you have access to the same information that everyone else has. When you access your Gopher client, you will start out in your client's "root menu". Each root menu is different, but they all have the same basic stuff. I am going to be using a UNIX Gopher client for today's tour. As I said earlier, we'll talk a little more about the commands tomorrow, but for now I want you to remember two things: 1. Your site's root menu will be different from my example. 2. In a UNIX Gopher client menu, the symbols at the end of each menu item tell you what that menu item is. The following guide will help you decipher the symbols: / gateways to other menu options . text, graphic, or program files requests you can make to a database for information phonebook requests you can make to a database for information Also, in a UNIX Gopher client the --> selects which menu item you want to enter. You move the --> up and down by using the up and down arrows, and you select the menu item by using the enter key. With that said, let's begin the tour! Our tour starts on the GOPHER.SQUIRREL.COM root menu: Root gopher server: gopher.squirrel.com --> 1. Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server. 2. What's new in the Squirrel Gopher. 3. Network Resources, Services and Information/ 4. Squirrel Staff Directory 5. Squirrel Human Resources Information/ 6. Potpourri, Miscellaneous Topics/ 7. Local Squirrel Archives/ 8. Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World/ I move the --> up and down by using the up and down arrows. When I finally find a menu item that I want to select, I put the --> next to that menu item and press the enter key. Since the first menu item -- "Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server" -- is a file (it has a "." at the end of it), let's see if we can get into it! I move the cursor up to "Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server," press enter, and the following appears on my screen: WELCOME TO THE SQUIRREL.COM GOPHER SERVER The SQUIRREL.COM gopher was created by Patrick "P-Crispy-One" Crispen to serve as a repository for more information about squirrels than anyone could ever possibly want to know. While you are here, please check out our special Sally Struthers menu which contains ... COOL! Unlike ftp, Gopher allows us to read files before we GET them! That's going to save us a whole bunch of time! :) Let's go back to the root menu and start a REAL journey. I'm going to take you to a site we visited just the other day -- SURAnet! So I go back to the root menu: Root gopher server: gopher.squirrel.com 1. Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server. 2. What's new in the Squirrel Gopher. 3. Network Resources, Services and Information/ 4. Squirrel Staff Directory 5. Squirrel Human Resources Information/ 6. Potpourri, Miscellaneous Topics/ 7. Local Squirrel Archives/ --> 8. Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World/ I want to visit other Gopher sites around the world, so I use the down arrow to move the cursor down to "Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World", press enter, and watch as the following appears on my screen: Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World 1. All the Gopher Servers in the World/ 2. Search All the Gopher Servers in the World 3. Search titles in Gopherspace using veronica/ 4. Africa/ 5. Asia/ 6. Europe/ 7. International Organizations/ 8. Middle East/ --> 9. North America/ 10. Pacific/ 11. Russia/ 12. South America/ ... snip snip snip (these are my Internet scissors) ... WOW! This is COOL! This menu allows me to access Gophers all over the world! I'm going to have to remember this. Let's keep today's tour close to (my) home. I move the cursor down to "North America", hit enter, and the following appears on my screen: North America 1. Canada/ 2. Costa Rica/ 3. Mexico/ --> 4. USA/ Well, that certainly narrowed things down a little :) Let's keep going. I move the cursor down to the "USA" menu, press enter, and a new menu appears on my screen: USA --> 1. All/ 2. General/ 3. Alabama/ 4. Alaska/ 5. Arizona ... snip snip snip ... 51. West Virginia/ 52. Wisconsin/ 53. Wyoming/ Uhh ... 53 entries? Yep -- one for each of the 50 states, one for Washington, D.C., one for "All", and one for "General". I feel like an adventure. I move the cursor up to the "All" menu, press enter, prop my feet up, and wait for the following new menu to appear on my screen: All 1. 1994 California Voter information/ 2. AACRAO National Office, Washington, DC/ 3. AATF - American Association of Teachers of French/ 4. ACADEME THIS WEEK (Chronicle of Higher Education)/ ... snip snip snip ... 988. SUNY Office of Library Services --> 989. SURAnet NIC/ 990. Safety Information Resources on the InterNet/ 991. Sailor - Maryland's Information Network/ ... snip snip snip ... WHOA! SURAnet!!! We've been there! Let's drop in and see if they missed me. I move the cursor to "SURAnet", press enter, and the following menu appears on my screen: SURAnet NIC 1. About this Gopher. 2. Databases and Network Information/ --> 3. FTP gateway link to ftp.sura.net/ 4. Information about SURAnet/ 5. Monticello Electronic Library/ ... snip snip snip ... This is starting to look familiar. It turns out that the SURAnet ftp site is also linked to Gopher. Instead of having to use a whole bunch of weird ftp commands, we can use Gopher to look around the ftp site! (Note: not all ftp sites are accessible through Gopher. That is why I spent all last week teaching you ftp) Last week we used ftp to get the file fall91.issue from the SURAnet ftp site. Let's see if we can do the same thing using Gopher! I move the cursor down to "FTP gateway link to ftp.sura.net", press enter, and the following menu appears on my screen: FTP gateway link to ftp.sura.net 1. README. 2. SURAnet/ 3. archie/ --> 4. articles/ 5. books/ ... snip snip snip ... THIS IS THE DIRECTORY WE GOT THE FIRST TIME WE ENTERED SURANET!! Is this cool or WHAT?! I remember that the fall91.issue file is in the articles menu, so I move the cursor down to "articles", press enter, and the following menu appears on my screen: articles 1. editors.box.txt. --> 2. fall91.issue. 3. spring91.issue. 4. sub.form.text. 5. summer91.issue. 6. winter90.issue. We're in the home stretch now! I move the cursor down to fall91.issue, press enter, and the following appears on my screen: ... snip snip snip ... On September 11th, SURAnet and MCI completed an agreement which will deliver unprecedented benefits to all SURAnet members ... Neat, huh? We just repeated last week's example, only this time: 1. We did not have to use any weird commands (all we used was the up and down arrows, and the enter key). 2. We were able to see a directory of every menu we passed through, and we never had to type DIR. 3. We were able to read the fall91.issue file without having to GET the file, and without having to leave the Gopher program. Tomorrow, we'll talk about Gopher commands :) HOMEWORK Divide 14,682 by 269 ... by hand (I'm kidding). BTW ... I know the answer, so DON'T MAIL IT TO ME :) PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS LETTER DO NOT PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA - TUSCALOOSA ROADMAP: COPYRIGHT PATRICK CRISPEN 1994. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.