How to Get Online 1996 Spring

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•Abstract GopherApp is an Internet information service program for Macintosh computers. It provides a Finder-like link to the range of Internet Gopher services. This release is a stable version 2 that includes fuller support for Gopher+ ASK forms than other current gopher+ clients, and support for multiple view formats. It includes multithreaded operations, for handling several network connections at once. Network interface code has been optimized for both speedy use, and good operation on slow dialup links. To use GopherApp, your Mac must have a network connection to the Internet, and it must have MacTCP installed. You may obtain GopherApp thru anonymous ftp to ftp.bio.indiana.edu, in folder /util/gopher, as gopherapp++.hqx. You may also obtain updates using Gopher to this same IUBio archive (ftp.bio.indiana.edu). Look for a folder called "IUBio Software+Data/GopherApp". GopherApp is written by Don Gilbert, using the MacApp extensible Macintosh programming framework from Apple Computer. It was derived from a subset of a biosequence analysis program called SeqApp. GopherApp.Help is a plain text file which may be read from your favorite wordprocessor. If you have problems getting GopherApp to launch, please read GopherApp.Help. GopherApp should work on all Mac models from Mac+, with System 7 and System 6 software (see section below). Comments, bug reports and suggestions for new features may be addressed via e-mail to Software@Bio.Indiana.Edu -- Don Gilbert History 9 Nov 93, v 2.1b117 Stable beta release, still has known bugs but usable. Built on the pointer-based MacApp v 3.1a. A lot of bugs from the v 2.0b release have been chased out. User-interface changes include: + view links by size, date, name, host, ... + "New gopher hole" is simplified way to connect to new gopher + "Find home of link" for Veronica users & other cases to locate root server for any given gopher link + Matching gopher data to Mac applications has been cleaned up w/ Choose Application button in New & Edit gopher links + Mapping of Gopher+ types to Mac types (in Prefs) changed & simplified. + Network preference "Use quickest gopher+ method" is for dialup internet or other slow network links. Cuts amount of data fetched with each directory. + Get Info from link + Mail link maintainer + added support for moo-V and Note gopher types Non-interface changes + TCP code extensively revised + multithreading processes cleaned up •GopherApp++ New Features Release 2.1b117 is built on the pointer-based MacApp v 3.1a, so code size has grown from a mere 300K in the version 1 (MacApp 2) to over 800k, AND there is an additional 200K or so of memory required for the OOP structures at runtime. So, the current GopherApp is a bit bloated in memory requirements ... you need more than a megabyte of memory to allocate to it. This may decrease with a new rev. of MacApp 3.1. ** Please let me hear of any bugs in this release, especially if you can reliably reproduce the bug under some set of circumstances. If you do send a bug report, please tell me more than "it don't work on my computer". I need to know some details of your computer hardware, system software, system extensions & controls, network software, and the series of steps that will reproduce the problem for you. This second, not so buggy, fairly usable release of version 2 includes an out-of-date help file, as I haven’t time just now to revise all of this. The salient features of version 2, also known as GopherApp++, are support for Gopher+ features -- In the main gopher item windows, you now see “-”, “+” or “?” after the icon for each item. “-” stands for gopher-, the old format. “+” indicates the item is new gopher+ format, and “?” indicates a gopher+ ASK dialog. -- ASK dialogs, which can include these simple user interface elements of edit-text lines (Ask), note-text lines (Note), edit-text blocks (AskL), checkboxes (Select), multi-choice pop-up menus (Choose), password edit lines (AskP), send file to server (ChooseF). You will see a “?” after the icon for ASK dialogs. -- Multiple views for an item, so a server can provide the best document or image format for many different clients and users. See the menu item “Open link by view” to select among views in gopher+ items. -- Use the Gopher Prefs dialog to edit the view mapping from Gopher+ server to Macintosh type. For each Gopher+ server type and handler, you must specify a Macintosh type and application signature which will handle that kind of document. This area needs a better user interface and some bug squashing. -- The menu item “Mail to link maintainer” takes advantage of Gopher+’s publishing of gopher item maintainer email addresses. -- The get info item will use Gopher+’s info query to return details of an item. -- View links by size, date, name, host, etc. lets you sort a gopher directory according to those criteria. The view as text creates a text file representation of the directory. -- "New gopher hole" is simplified way to connect to new gopher. -- "Find home of link" for Veronica users & other cases to locate root server for any given gopher link. -- Matching gopher data to Mac applications has been cleaned up w/ Choose Application button in New & Edit gopher links. This button lets you select a Mac appliction that knows how to process various kinds of gopher data, such as GIF or JPEG images. And from any Mac application that you choose, you can select from file types that it knows, from the popup menu below the Choose Application button. -- Mapping of Gopher+ types to Mac types, in the Preferences, has been revised to use a button to choose a Mac application and menu to select from its known file types. Ditto for Gopher- and server mapping (these latter two features are of less importance with advent of gopher+). -- There is a new Preferences option for slow networks (e.g., phone dialups): "Use quickest gopher+ method" cuts amount of data fetched with each directory. If this is option is turned on, you then need to use the "Get Info" menu item to fetch all the gopher+ info, such as view types, for a given link. -- Support is added support for the new basic gopher- types of moo-V (;) and Note (i). ++ Multiple execution threads. This lets you use GopherApp to fetch several items at once, or do other things while an item is being fetched from remote server. Text now is displayed while it is still being fetched. There are still bugs in this threading, and one consequence of it is that GopherApp requires much more memory (all code segments are locked in memory to keep the threads happy). I recommend you set it for 1500 kb of RAM or higher for this release. Later releases may reduce this high memory need. My thanks to Peter Speck, for providing source of his multi-threaded Nuntius newsreader, which is the basis of GopherApp’s threaded operation. ++ Much of the revisions remain “under the hood”. That is the source code of this version differs widely from the last version, but I’ve maintained much of the user interface from the last version. Here in lies several months of work, bug chasing and frustration on my part. I started this update in November 1992, expecting to have a functional Gopher+ client in a few months of weekend and vacation programming. Not so. Most of the work dealt with the MacApp 2 to 3 transition, plus the Pascal to C++ change, for which I blame myself for many easily made, but hard to find bugs. But I also am unhappy in general with Apple Computer’s lack of better tools for developers changing code from MacApp 2 to 3. A good, automated checker could have saved me (and lots of others in similar boat) weeks of debugging. Known & possible bugs in version 2.1b117: -- Fetch and decode of BinHex files fails sometimes (esp. fetching TurboGopher.hqx :) -- New Gopher Link & Edit Gopher Link can cause bomb (I've seen this when repeatedly opening then cancelling these dialogs). -- In fetch & display of plain text items, app should display any size text limited only by avail. memory. But w/ new memory pig of a release, that limit can easily be reached. Sometimes when fetching more Text than window has memory to hold, app will fail to properly save text to disk. -- Some problems seem to exist w/ use of Gopher+ view forms -- feedback from users will help. Fetching some view types may fail in some ways. I need more testing and bug reports on this. -- various inconsistencies in gopher type to mac type mapping remain. When editting a gopher link and gopher type is changed, all Mac type info reverts to an old form. Need to better integrate gopher+ types w/ gopher- and mac types still. -- Mail setup is not automatically called as it should be when needed. This may cause problems. Users should select Mail Setup and enter mailer info before using Mail to..., Send mail, check mail, etc. -- The CSO & Whois items haven't been tested for a while -- they may fail and need revision anyway (smart servers could handle this w/ ASK forms on the server and not try to confuse us client writers). -- This release did run on a Mac SE w/ System 7. It is slow on SE, and was not extensively tested. -- This release did run on System 6 on a Mac IIci, but hasn't been extensively tested w/ System 6 and may have 6 related bugs. While source code of GopherApp 1 is available, I haven't yet released verison 2 source, as I'm not happy w/ the mess it is in, and expect Apple's next release of MacApp to cause more changes. •GopherApp Help ***************************************************** **** NOTICE **** **** This is a beta version of the program. It still **** has several known bugs (see below), and probably **** several yet-to-be reported problems. **** ***************************************************** Comments, bug reports and suggestions for new features may be addressed via e-mail to Software@Bio.Indiana.Edu With any bug reports, I would appreciate as much detail as is reasonable without putting you off from making the report. Include description of Mac hardware, system software version. Include copies of data if relevant. If you need to use land mail, send to Don Gilbert Biocomputing Office, Biology Department Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 This GopherApp program is copyrighted 1992 by D.G. Gilbert. All rights are reserved. You may use GopherApp for non-commercial tasks, and you may re-distribute it, if you make *no* charge for the redistribution and if you include the full, unmodified distribution set (you may add features). It is written with MPW Object Pascal & some C using the MacApp extensible Macintosh programming framework from Apple Computer, which copyrights the MacApp portion. ++ GopherApp verson 2.0 is in C++ and Macapp version 3. As of release 1.1b, the full source code (excluding MacApp libraries), is available for non-commercial uses. Modified versions may be distributed as long as information regarding the original distribution is included. Look for the file gopherapp-src.hqx for the source in the same location (above) as the application. •Installing If you obtain this release thru FTP file transfer, you have a binhex encoded archive file. You will need the Stuffit (version 1.5?) or Unstuffit applications. The former includes an un-binhex option to convert from text encoding to macbinary Stuffit archive. These are widely available from Mac software archives, user groups, and computing support people. Use Stuffit to extract the distribution folder. •Data files GopherApp uses files of type 'IGo4' which are actually Text but in the strict format used in the Gopher transaction protocol: [Type Char][Title....]<tab>[Path]<tab>[Host.address]<tab>[Port#]<cr> This is repeated for any number of lines. These files *can* be converted to text, editted, then reconverted to Gopher files, if you know what you are doing. Later there may be a feature to edit this info in the Gopher windows. The New and Open commands on the File menu will let you create new or open old Gopher files. You should use Copy/Paste and dragging gopher items, as well as the "New gopher link" and "Edit gopher link" commands to create gopher document files that suit your tastes. You may also edit a gopher document file as if it were a TEXT file (Open as Text). When you save such a file, it is saved as a TEXT type. You can convert it back to a GopherApp document by using the "Gopher..." command from the Internet menu, while holding down the OPTION key. Open the document then resave it as a Gopher type (IGo4). The prefered way to edit gopher links is with "Edit gopher link" command however. A really sneaking option (I was out of User Interface hacking time) is to SAVE AS with OPTION key down. This creates a document in the style of Gopher Server link files: Name=bob Type=0 Path=.... However, GopherApp cannot (yet) re-read these. You need to convert to TEXT and move to your Unix server. •Features ••File New and Open will create new or open old Gopher folder files. New Text and and Open Text work on plain text, which is the format of the Gopher data files also. Save, Save as, Save a copy in, all will save the current document to disk files. Revert will restore the open align view to the last version saved to disk. Print setup, print will print the current view. Help brings up a view to page thru the help file. ••Editing Undo, cut, copy, paste, clear, select all -- these standard mac commands will operate on text as well as on Gopher items in (hopefully) intuitive, usual ways. Find, Find same, Find "selection" will search for strings in text. Replace, replace same will replace target strings (not yet enabled). ••Text styling In most of the edittable text windows you can specify text styles, fonts, sizes. These styles are not currently saved (bug). ••Internet The Internet features of GopherApp let you interchange ideas and data with people and computing services around the world. If your Mac is connected already to the Internet, you probably are familiar with electronic mail and some of its uses. GopherApp includes a selection of network access features in the including (if it isn't bombing like it was yesterday:) a feature to send and receive e-mail. •••Internet requirements All features of this menu depend on (a) a network link to the Internet, and (b) MacTCP software developed by Apple Computer. The network link may be thru Appletalk or thru Ethernet. MacTCP is not (yet) part of Macintosh System software. It may be purchased in individual copies or site licenses, and it is common for a university or research institution to have a site license. It also is packages with various commercial applications. GopherApp is now SLIP-aware. It will work properly over a telephone/modem connection to a Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) server, if you have proper SLIP software to use with MacTCP. This includes Versaterm's SLIP link (by Lonnie Abelbeck, sold thru Synergy Software), MacSLIP and perhaps others later. I find that GopherApp is useable even at 2400 baud, though I don't recommend that slow a speed for browsing lengthy documents. See the Gopher Prefs dialog to set a long TCP timeout for SLIP. •••Mail Preferences The mail prefs dialog asks for your return e-mail address, your preferred SMTP mail host, and your POP mail address and password. These addresses may be similar. Return e-mail address: This is where another person should send mail so it will reach you. Example: Bob.Jones@Bio.Indiana.Edu or: bjones@sunflower.bio.indiana.edu SMTP Mail host: This is the internet address of the computer thru which SeqApp will send out mail to the rest of the world. Example: Sunflower.Bio.Indiana.Edu POP Mail address: Not supported (yet) in GopherApp. The POP mail address is not required to send mail. •••Send Mail Send an electronic mail message. You must enter an address to send to, and have entered your return address in the mail preferences dialog. •••Read Mail This will retrieve electronic mail from a Post Office Protocol (POP) server computer. You also need a POP server computer with proper software and a mail account. The standard POP server software for Unix computers is available via anonymous ftp to ftp.CC.Berkeley.Edu (128.32.136.9), as pub/popper- xxx.tar.Z. I also highly recommend Eudora as a Mac client for reading POP mail. Get this by anonymous ftp to ftp.cso.uiuc.edu, in the mac/eudora subdirectory. •Gopher Internet Gopher gives you access to a wide range of information services that are now developing on the Internet. Gopher is something like Telnet or FTP (file transfer), but also different. It includes some of the keyword searching features of WAIS (Wide Area Information Services). There are currently several biology gopher services found around the globe. These include fast and up-to-date keyword searches of GenBank, EMBL, PIR and other important biology databanks. Gopher works something like the Macintosh Finder, only over the Internet and with various restrictions -- basically you cannot yet PUT information to remote servers, just GET it from them. There are several file "types", include Text documents, Folders with more items, Search items to search databases for keyword matches, Phone book items to look up people's addresses, Binhex encoded Mac programs that you can fetch, and others. When you find folders in a Gopher window, you can double-click them to open a new window with more items. There is a drop-down menu at the top of each gopher window which you can use like the (command-key) drop down menu in Mac Finder windows, to select parent windows. NOTE Network status information is displayed in the top line of the current Gopher window. If a network connection seems to be frozen, or if a file you are fetching seems too big, you can frequently halt the transfer with a COMMAND-PERIOD keypress combination, as is standard for other Mac applications. ••New Gopher This creates a new Gopher document, including default links to a few Gopher servers. To the astute computist: The default gopher links reside in application resources named "IGo4". You can add to or replace these using ResEdit, by copying a link from an open Gopher document, and pasting it into an "IGo4" resource in ResEdit. [ This regards the default servers listed in a New document. You need to use Resedit to change the "IGo4" resources in Gopherapp. The first one, ID 0 "Bundle Stuff" must remain as is. The other ones can be deleted, replaced or edited. The easiest way to put a new "IGo4" link into this resource is to (a) Run GopherApp, open gopher doc w/ link, Select and COPY the link. (b) Quit GopherApp, open it from ResEdit, open "IGo4" apps, create new IGo4 item then PASTE the (text) of the link into the Ascii side of the IGo4 edit box. ] ••Gopher Documents The New and Open commands on the File menu will let you create new or open old Gopher files. You should use Copy/Paste and dragging gopher items, as well as the "New gopher link" and "Edit gopher link" commands to create gopher document files that suit your tastes. You may also edit a gopher document file as if it were a TEXT file (Open as Text). When you save such a file, it is saved as a TEXT type. You can convert it back to a GopherApp document by using the "Gopher..." command from the Internet menu, while holding down the OPTION key. Open the document then resave it as a Gopher type (IGo4). The prefered way to edit gopher links is with "Edit gopher link" command however. A really sneaking option (I was out of User Interface hacking time) is to SAVE AS with OPTION key down. This creates a document in the style of Gopher Server link files: Name=bob Type=0 Path=.... However, GopherApp cannot (yet) re-read these. You need to convert to TEXT and move to your Unix server. ••Gopher Prefs This dialog allows you to set some personal preferences for Gopher views. Some of these features (single window) are not ready yet. Your choices for display font, size, and item information (host, port, path, ...) are selected in the Prefs window. Also default font and size for text views. The TCP Timeout sets how long the app will wait for data from a remote connection. Value is in 60ths of a second, so 3600 is 1 minute. Use a large value for slow connections, like SLIP. ••Mapping file types ••Gopher+ to Mac type map # Gopher+ kind/handler mapping to Mac type/sire # Go+ Go+ Pref Transfer Mac Mac Save To # Kind Handler erence Type Type Sire Disk Display # Comments # ---- ---------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- #------ ---- # # Various forms of text text - 1 text TEXT Rich no yes # plain text text plain 1 text TEXT Rich no yes # plain text text rtf 2 text TEXT MSWD yes no # MS Word text postscript 3 text ???? ???? yes no # postscript viewer text MSWord5 2 text WDBN MSWD yes no # MS Word text MSWord4 2 text WDBN MSWD yes no # MS Word text MacWrite 3 text WDBN MSWD yes no # MacWrite text WordPerfect51 3 text WDBN MSWD yes no # WordPerf text tex 0 text ???? ???? yes no # TeX viewer text dvi 0 binary ???? ???? yes no # DVI viewer text troff 0 text ???? ???? yes no # troff viewer text tab-separated-values 2 text TEXT Rich no yes # plain text # # # some rehashed mimies application postscript 3 text ???? ???? yes no # postscript viewer application rtf 2 text TEXT MSWD yes no # MS Word application wordperfect5.1 3 text WDBN MSWD yes no # WordPerf application mac-binhex40 1 binary ???? ???? yes no # binhex application msword 2 text WDBN MSWD yes no # MS Word application macwriteii 2 text WDBN MSWD yes no # MacWrite # # # Binary files file hqx 1 binary ???? ???? yes no # binhex file tar.Z 2 binary ???? ???? yes no # tar- compressed file tar 2 binary ???? ???? yes no # file PKzip 3 binary ???? ???? yes no # file Zoo 4 binary ???? ???? yes no # file Arc 4 binary ???? ???? yes no # file Lharc 0 binary ???? ???? yes no # file PCEXE 0 binary ???? ???? yes no # file MacBinary 1 binary ???? ???? yes no # file uuencode 2 binary ???? ???? yes no # # # Telnet file formats terminal telnet 1 text ???? ???? yes yes # ncsa telnet terminal tn3270 2 text ???? ???? yes yes # tn3270 hack # # Graphics file formats image gif 2 binary GIFf JVWR yes no #JpegViewer-2 image PICT 1 binary PICT JVWR yes no #JpegViewer-2 image JPEG 3 binary JPEG JVWR yes no #JpegViewer-2 image JFIF 3 binary JFIF JVWR yes no #JpegViewer-2 image TIFF 4 binary ???? ???? yes no # Photoshop ? image pcx 0 binary ???? ???? yes no # # # Movies video quicktime 1 binary ???? ???? yes no # video mpeg 2 binary ???? ???? yes no # # # Sounds audio mulaw 0 binary ???? ???? yes no # audio wave 0 binary ???? ???? yes no # # # # put any comments after "#" # separate values by spaces, must include all fields in a line, use "-" for null/don't care # # Go+ Kind = string to match Gopher+ view kind (case insensitive) # Go+ Handler = string to match Gopher+ view handler (case insensitive) # Preference = rank which are most prefered among view choices, # 1= highest preference, 99 = lowest, but 0= never fetch this type. # transferType = (binary, text, none) = method to transfer data from server to client # (currently text == binary + strip linefeeds, none = not supported) # MacType = Mac Finder file type # MacCreator = Mac Finder file creator # saveToDisk = (yes, no) = save as disk file (otherwise try to display in client?) # launch = (yes, no) = launch app creator with file (system 7) # ••Gopher- to Mac type map # # Gopher Type to Mac Type map # # This is a quick hack to change the published Gopher server type into # a type that this program may handle better. This is a quick 'n' dirty # way to allow you to handle new gopher types (e.g., 'g' for gif), or # change some of the default behavior of current types. # For instance, if you want to read text documents with a program that # can handle >32Kb of text, set type 0 to SaveToDisk=yes and Launch=yes. # It would be safest to test your mappings first with the "Edit Link" menu item. # See also the Server suffix map. # # Server Local # Gopher Gopher Map Transfer Mac Mac Save to # Type Type When method Type Creator Disk Launch # ---- ---- ------ ------- ---- ---- ---- ---- 0 0 always text TEXT EDIT no no # text document 1 1 always text IGo4 IGo4 no no # gopher folder 2 2 always text TEXT EDIT no no # CSO phone book 3 3 always text TEXT EDIT no no # unknown/error 4 4 always binary TEXT EDIT yes yes # binhex file 6 6 always text TEXT EDIT no no # uuencoded file 7 7 always text TEXT EDIT no no # question service 8 8 always text CONF NCSA yes yes # telnet service 9 9 always binary BINA ???? yes no # binary file s s always binary BINA ???? yes no # sound file w w always text TEXT EDIT no no # Whois phone book #--- end of types known to gopherapp #--- map other types to ones known to gopherapp 5 9 always binary BINA ???? yes no # weird msdos-binhex T 8 always text CONF NCSA yes yes # telnet/tn3270 service g 9 always binary GIFf QGif yes yes # somebody's gif type # # # put any comments after "#" # separate values by spaces, must include all (7) fields in a line # # server gopher type = single character, see above types and comments # local gopher type = single character, see above types and comments # mapWhen = (always, never) = when to apply this mapping # transferType = (binary, text, none) = method to transfer data from server to client # (currently text == binary + strip linefeeds, none = not supported) # MacType = Mac Finder file type # MacCreator = Mac Finder file creator # saveToDisk = (yes, no) = save as disk file (otherwise try to display in client?) # launch = (yes, no) = launch app creator with file (system 7) # ••Server suffix to Mac type map # # Gopher Server to Mac type map # # This is a quick hack to give Gopher server files a file type based on # their pathname suffix. This is not the best method -- I hope we can expand the # Gopher server typing scheme to do this more certainly than relying on pathnames. # But it should give you a taste where Gopher file typing may go. If you find this # useful, make it known to various Gopher server managers that this should be # added to the Gopher protocol. # # Server Local # Path Gopher Map Transfer Mac Mac Save To # suffix Type When Type Type Creator Disk Launch # .gif 9 always binary GIFf QGif yes yes #GIF picture, Quick Gif .tar.Z 9 default binary BINA ???? yes no #a general binary .rtf 9 always text TEXT MSWD yes yes #ms word rich text .ps 9 always binary TEXT ???? yes no #postscript .eps 9 always binary EPSF 8BIM yes yes #adobe photoshop .pict 9 always binary PICT 8BIM yes yes #adobe photoshop .tiff 9 always binary TIFF 8BIM yes yes #adobe photoshop .jfif 9 always binary JFIF JVWR yes yes #JPEG Viewer .jpeg 9 always binary JFIF JVWR yes yes #JPEG Viewer .jpg 9 always binary JFIF JVWR yes yes #JPEG Viewer #--- .hqx 4 always binary TEXT EDIT yes yes # binhex file .uue 6 always text TEXT EDIT no no # uuencoded file # # put any comments after "#" # separate values by spaces, must include all (7) fields in a line # # suffix = string to match at end of server pathname (case sensitive) # local gopher type = single character, see types and comments in Gopher Map # mapWhen = (always, default, never) = when to apply this mapping # (default == apply only if server item type is default (text) document) # transferType = (binary, text, none) = method to transfer data from server to client # (currently text == binary + strip linefeeds, none = not supported) # MacType = Mac Finder file type # MacCreator = Mac Finder file creator # saveToDisk = (yes, no) = save as disk file (otherwise try to display in client?) # launch = (yes, no) = launch app creator with file (system 7) # •What Is Internet Gopher? Internet Gopher is an information distribution system. It combines features of electronic bulletin board services and databases, allowing you to either browse a hierarchy of information, or to search for the information you need using full-text indexes. Gopher can also store references to wide area information services (WAIS), anonymous ftp sites, public telnet sessions, phone book servers, sounds and various graphic documents. Internet Gopher gives you access to a wide range of information services that are now developing on the Internet. Gopher is something like Telnet or FTP (file transfer), but also different. It includes some of the keyword searching features of WAIS (Wide Area Information Services). Gopher works something like the Macintosh Finder, only over the Internet and with various restrictions -- basically you cannot yet PUT information to remote servers, just GET it from them. There are several file "types", include Text documents, Folders with more items, Search items to search databases for keyword matches, Phone book items to look up people's addresses, Binhex encoded Mac programs that you can fetch, and others. ••Frequently asked questions with answers Archive-name: gopher-faq Last-modified: 1993/05/12 Author: Paul Lindner Common Questions and Answers about the Internet Gopher, a client/server protocol for making a world wide information service, with many implementations. Posted to comp.infosystems.gopher, comp.answers, and news.answers every two weeks. The most recent version of this FAQ can be gotten through gopher, or via anonymous ftp: rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/gopher-faq Those without FTP access should send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources" in the body to find out how to do FTP by e-mail. ------------------------------------------------------------------- List of questions in the Gopher FAQ: Q0: What is Gopher? Q1: Where can I get Gopher software? Q2: What do I need to access Gopher? Q3: Where are there publicly available logins for Gopher? Q4: How can I add to the information in gopher? Q5: Who Develops Gopher Software? Q6: How can I set up a "CSO" phone book server? Where is the software? Q7: Why can't I access the University of Minnesota's UPI news? Q9: What are the type characters for the different Gopher Objects? Q10: When I do full-text searches I always get every document back, Why? Q11: When I try to build the UNIX software I get an error from make: "Must be a separator on rules line #. Stop" Why? Q12: What is the relationship between Gopher and (WAIS, WWW, ftp)? Q13: Are papers or articles describing Gopher available? Q14: On a DECstation I get the error message "/etc/svc.conf no such file or directory" when running the gopherd server, why? Q15: The boolean searching terms don't work for my full-text index, why? Q16: When linking the Unix gopher server with WAIS I get undefined symbols, Q18: Why don't my WAIS indexes work? I never get anything back for searches. or Why do I get "Dangling file" error messages in my logfile? Q19: My gopher server doesn't work under inetd, why? Q20: This is not a bug report, just a curiousity. I managed to install Q21: Help! I have PC-NFS and want to use the PC-Gopher client. How? Q22: How do I nuke a hung TCP connection? I can't restart my UNIX gopher server unless I get rid of it, and I don't want to reboot! Q23: Is there somewhere I can retrieve a list of announced gopher links? I'd like to keep a local, up-to-date list of available gopher holes without requiring our users to gopher to umn just to scan GopherSpace. Q24: Why doesn't my unix gopher client display ISO-Latin-1 characters Q25: What is veronica? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q0: What is Gopher? A0: The Internet Gopher client/server provides a distributed information delivery system around which a world/campus-wide information system (CWIS) can readily be constructed. While providing a delivery vehicle for local information, Gopher facilitates access to other Gopher and information servers throughout the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q1: Where can I get Gopher software? A1: via anonymous ftp to boombox.micro.umn.edu. Look in the directory /pub/gopher -------------------------------------------------------------------- Q2: What do I need to access Gopher? A2: You will need a gopher "client" program that runs on your local PC or workstation There are clients for the following systems. The directory following the name is the location of the client on the anonymous ftp site boombox.micro.umn.edu (134.84.132.2) in the directory /pub/gopher. Unix Curses & Emacs : /pub/gopher/Unix/gopher1.12.tar.Z Xwindows (athena) : /pub/gopher/Unix/xgopher.1.2.tar.Z Xwindows (Motif) : /pub/gopher/Unix/moog Xwindows (Xview) : /pub/gopher/Unix/xvgopher Macintosh Hypercard : /pub/gopher/Macintosh-TurboGopher/old- versions * Macintosh Application : /pub/gopher/Macintosh-TurboGopher * DOS w/Clarkson Driver : /pub/gopher/PC_client/ NeXTstep : /pub/gopher/NeXT/ VM/CMS : /pub/gopher/Rice_CMS/ or /pub/gopher/VieGOPHER/ VMS : /pub/gopher/VMS/ OS/2 2.0 : /pub/gopher/os2/ MVS/XA : /pub/gopher/mvs/ Many other clients and servers have been developed by others, the following is an attempt at a comprehensive list. A Microsoft Windows Winsock client "The Gopher Book" sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms- windows/winsock/apps/gophbook.zip A Macintosh Application, "MacGopher". ftp.cc.utah.edu:/pub/gopher/Macintosh * Another Macintosh application, "GopherApp". ftp.bio.indiana.edu:/util/gopher/gopherapp * A port of the UNIX curses client for DOS with PC/TCP oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu:/public/dos/misc/dosgopher.exe A port of the UNIX curses client for PC-NFS bcm.tmc.edu:/nfs/gopher.exe A beta version of the PC Gopher client for Novell's LAN Workplace for DOS lennon.itn.med.umich.edu:/dos/gopher A VMS DECwindows client for use with Wollongong or UCX job.acs.ohio-state.edu:XGOPHER_CLIENT.SHARE * Note: these Macintosh clients require MacTCP. Most of the above clients can also be fetched via a gopher client itself. Put the following on a gopher server: Type=1 Host=boombox.micro.umn.edu Port=70 Path= Name=Gopher Software Distribution. Or point your gopher client at boombox.micro.umn.edu, port 70 and look in the gopher directory. There are also a number of public telnet login sites available. The University of Minnesota operates one on the machine "consultant.micro.umn.edu" (134.84.132.4) See Q3 for more information about this. It is recommended that you run the client software instead of logging into the public telnet login sites. A client uses the custom features of the local machine (mouse, scroll bars, etc.) A local client is also faster. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q3: Where are there publicly available logins for Gopher? A3: Here is a short list, use the site closest to you to minimize network lag. Public Logins: Hostname IP# Login Area ------------------------- --------------- ------ ------------- consultant.micro.umn.edu 134.84.132.4 gopher North America gopher.uiuc.edu 128.174.33.160 gopher North America panda.uiowa.edu 128.255.40.201 panda North America gopher.sunet.se 192.36.125.2 gopher Europe info.anu.edu.au 150.203.84.20 info Australia gopher.chalmers.se 129.16.221.40 gopher Sweden tolten.puc.cl 146.155.1.16 gopher South America ecnet.ec 157.100.45.2 gopher Ecuador gan.ncc.go.jp 160.190.10.1 gopher Japan It is recommended that you run the client software instead of logging into the public login sites. A client uses the custom features of the local machine (mouse, scroll bars, etc.) and gives faster response. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q4: How can I add to the information in gopher? A4: You can do this by running a gopher server. Servers are available for a number of systems. Use anonymous ftp to boombox.micro.umn.edu (134.84.132.2) and look in /pub/gopher. The following servers are available there: Unix : /pub/gopher/Unix/gopherxx.tar.Z VMS : /pub/gopher/VMS/ Macintosh : /pub/gopher/Mac_server/ VM/CMS : /pub/gopher/Rice_CMS/ or /pub/gopher/Vienna_CMS/ MVS : /pub/gopher/mvs/ DOS PC : /pub/gopher/PC_server/ When you have your server ready you can publish it to the world by sending e-mail to the maintainters of the "Other gophers" list: If your gopher server is in Europe, send mail to: gopher@ebone.net Otherwise send mail to: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q5: Who Develops Gopher Software? A5: Gopher was originally developed in April 1991 by the University of Minnesota Microcomputer, Workstation, Networks Center to help our campus find answers to their computer questions. It has since grown into a full-fledged World Wide Information System used by a large number of sites in the world. Many people have contributed to the project, too numerous to count. The people behind the much of the gopher software can be reached via e-mail at gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu, or via paper mail: Internet Gopher Developers 100 Union St. SE #190 Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA Or via FAX at: +1 (612) 625-6817 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q6: How can I set up a "CSO" phone book server? Where is the software? A6: CSO phone book servers are also known as "qi" servers. The software implementation can be gotten via anonymous ftp from uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.50) as /pub/qi.tar.Z. You may also see this referred to as "ph", which is what most of the clients are called. A collected set of clients for Macs, PCs, VMS, VM, etc, are in the /pub/ph.tar.Z file. There is also an archive of the mailing list for qi/ph software on the same machine. It's in /pub/info-ph.archive. You may join the list by sending email to info-ph-request@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu. This software is supported by Paul Pomes <p-pomes@uiuc.edu> Contact him for more information. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q7: Why can't I access the University of Minnesota's UPI news? A7: The University of Minnesota has a site license for UPI news, we are not allowed to distribute it off of our campus. We get our UPI news from Clarinet. For more information about getting UPI news send mail to info@clarinet.com. For information about setting up your own gopher-UPI server search the gopher-news archive for UPI. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q9: What are the type characters for the different Gopher Objects? A9: Normal IDs. 0 Item is a file 1 Item is a directory 2 Item is a CSO (qi) phone-book server 3 Error 4 Item is a BinHexed Macintosh file. 5 Item is DOS binary archive of some sort. 6 Item is a UNIX uuencoded file. 7 Item is an Index-Search server. 8 Item points to a text-based telnet session. 9 Item is a binary file! Client must read until the connection closes. Beware. T TN3270 connection. Experimental IDs. s Sound type. Data stream is a mulaw sound. g GIF type. M MIME type. Item contains MIME data. h html type. I Image type. i "inline" text type (used by panda). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q10: When I do full-text searches I always get every document back, Why? A10: This is a problem occasionally encountered with Unix full-text indexes. It is caused by setting up the link incorrectly to a gindexd port. The Path= field should be *blank* when pointing to a gindexd index. Otherwise the client will send the path to the gindexd daemon, which interprets everything as a keyword. This path is likely to contain a pathname that is common to all of the indexed files. Thus a search generates hits on everything. Note that gindexd isn't used much anymore, this question does not apply if you are using the built in indexing in the Unix gopher server. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q11: When I try to build the UNIX software I get an error from make: "Must be a separator on rules line #. Stop" Why? A11: This is a problem with older makes that don't understand the "include" keyword. One easy way to cope with this problem is compiling GNU make, which does understand the include keyword. If this is too difficult, remove the line: include Makefile.config from all the Makefiles and paste in a copy of Makefile.config at the top of each Makefile. Or, instead of pasting you can make the client/server by going into the appropriate directory and typing: make -f ../Makefile.config -f Makefile ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q12: What is the relationship between Gopher and (WAIS, WWW, ftp)? A12: Gopher is intimately intertwined with these two other systems. As shipped the Unix gopher server has the capability to: - Search local WAIS indices. - Query remote WAIS servers and funnel the results to gopher clients. - Query remote ftp sites and funnel the results to gopher clients. - Be queried by WWW (World Wide Web) clients (either using built in gopher querying or using native http querying. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q13: Are papers or articles describing Gopher available? A13: Gopher has a whole chapter devoted to it in : _The_Whole_Internet_users_guide_and_catalog by Ed Krol (publisher O'Reilley & Associates, Inc; ISBN: 1-56592-025-2). (Editors note: ...Great book, go out and buy a bunch!) _The_Internet_Passport: NorthWestNet's Guide to Our World Online" By Jonathan Kochmer and NorthWestNet. Published by NorthWestNet, Bellevue, WA. 1993. 516 pp. ISBN 0-9635281-0-6. Contact info: passport@nwnet.net, or (206) 562-3000 _A_Students_Guide_to_UNIX by Harley Hahn. (publisher McGraw Hill, Inc.; 1993 ISBN 0-07-025511-3) Other references include: _The_Internet_Gopher_, "ConneXions", July 1992, Interop. _Exploring_Internet_GopherSpace_ "The Internet Society News", v1n2 1992, (You can subscribe to the Internet Society News by sending e-mail to isoc@nri.reston.va.us) _The_Internet_Gopher_Protocol_, Proceedings of the Twenty-Third IETF, CNRI, Section 5.3 _Internet_Gopher_, Proceedings of Canadian Networking '92 _The_Internet_Gopher_, INTERNET: Getting Started, SRI International, Section 10.5.5 _Tools_help_Internet_users_discover_on-line_treasures, Computerworld, July 20, 1992 _TCP/IP_Network_Administration_, O'Reilly. Balakrishan, B. (Oct 1992) "SPIGopher: Making SPIRES databases accessible through the Gopher protocol". SPIRES Fall '92 Workshop, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Tomer, C. Information Technology Standards for Libraries, _Journal of the American Society for Information Science_, 43(8):566-570, Sept 1992. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q14: On a DECstation I get the error message "/etc/svc.conf no such file or directory" when running the gopherd server, why? A14: This is caused by the chroot() call in gopherd. It can be easily fixed by running gopherd with the -c option. Alternatively you can copy /etc/svc.conf into a directory named "etc" inside the gopher-data directory. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q15: The boolean searching terms don't work for my full-text index, why? A15: This is probably because the searching is being provided by WAIS. WAIS opts to return all documents that contain a search phrase within certain limits. WAIS searches do return the documents with the highest "score" at the top, those documents will have the closest relevance. Alternatively you could get a booleanized version of wais from ftp.bio.indiana.edu. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q16: When linking the Unix gopher server with WAIS I get undefined symbols, such as: log_file_name logfile PrintStatus find_value Sources NumSources A17: This happens if you make gopherd before linking in the WAIS ir/ui directories. The fix is to "make clean" or remove gopherd/{waisgopher.o,Waisindex.o} and then remake gopherd. Or link the ir/ui directories first. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q18: Why don't my WAIS indexes work? I never get anything back for searches. or Why do I get "Dangling file" error messages in my logfile? A18: The problem could be in the server. The server should be run using the -c option if you want WAIS to work. Another solution is to patch the WAIS code so that it doesn't check the files on the disk. Search the gopher-news archive for "dangling". This will turn up a single document with the patch. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q19: My gopher server doesn't work under inetd, why? A19: It could be that your inetd server only supports a limited amount of arguments. For instance, the maximum number of arguments to an inetd server is 5. You can get around this by combining arguments: i.e. gopherd -I -c becomes: gopherd -Ic You may also leave the port specifier off of the command line. The gopher server automagically finds out the port it's running on. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q20: This is not a bug report, just a curiousity. I managed to install gopher on my PC, more or less by myself, which is a pretty good accomplishment, for someone who hasn't installed hardly anything on a PC. I then proceeded to load my PC/TCP kernel, ETHDRV, and try to start up gopher. It said it couldn't initialize that stack(?). I have to load this whenever I use PC/TCP. Incredibly, when I did not load ETHDRV, Gopher came up immediately and telneted to our local server. How does it know what kernel to load? A20 Dr. Science says, The Internet Gopher program is not actually computer program at all, but a collection of magical incantations handed down from Dark Age conjurors. It works by sending magical "demons" through the air, which scour the world for information, and then return to cast illusions containing the answer. When you use the Gopher, your computer isn't actually doing anything at all. Instead, these demons have mesmirized you with an evil magical spell, which was invoked by the pattern of finger-movements peculiar to the typing of the letters G-O-P-H-E-R on your keyboard. This spell transmits demonic information directly to your brain. Scientists aren't certain of the long-term effects of demonic mesmirization, although former presidents have suffered only minor medical side-effects from it. Indeed, since Magic and Science are usually opposed to each other, most Scientists are usually close-minded about such issues, and will usually respond with some vacuous non-answer about "packet drivers", "stacks", and other such jargon. Unlike conventional scientists, Dr. Science is very open-minded and is willing to deal with such issues in a frank and honest manner. This is why people come to him with questions, and why they've learned to rely on and live by his answers. Dr. Science "I'm not a real doctor; I have a Master's Degree.... in SCIENCE!" :-) :-) :-) :-) There's always room for a little humor in a FAQ.. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q21: Help! I have PC-NFS and want to use the PC-Gopher client. How? A21: Use a piece of software called PKTMUX, available at fine ftp sites everywhere. This will let you use any packet driver application. Or, aquire a client that supports PC-NFS. See Q2. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q22: How do I nuke a hung TCP connection? I can't restart my UNIX gopher server unless I get rid of it, and I don't want to reboot! A22: Here is an example of using dbx to change a socket from CLOSING to CLOSED. # netstat -A|grep CLOSING c4bc5100 tcp 0 11 mymachine.gopher 129.89.8.4.70 CLOSING # dbx -k /vmunix /dev/mem ... (dbx) 0xc4bc5100+8/1X -- display contents of PCB+8 c4bc5108: 00000007 (dbx) assign 0xc4bc5108=0 -- zero it 0 (dbx) q After a minute or two, the CLOSED socket should disappear. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q23: Is there somewhere I can retrieve a list of announced gopher links? I'd like to keep a local, up-to-date list of available gopher holes without requiring our users to gopher to umn just to scan GopherSpace. A23: In the Unix client/server distribution is a perl script called "gopherdist". Gopherdist can fetch the contents of any point in GopherSpace. To dump the contents of all the North American links from gopher.tc.umn.edu do the following: % gopherdist gopher.tc.umn.edu 70 "1/Other Gopher and Information Servers/North America" > .Links ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q24: Why doesn't my unix gopher client display ISO-Latin-1 characters properly? BTW I'm using a Sun workstation.. A24: It is the client's problem, the server is perfectly 8-bit transparent. The BSD curses library uses bit 8 in order to remember, whether a character has been displayed reverse. So use just /usr/5bin/cc and you get the System V curses version which is 8 bit clean. Note that this may be a problem under other versions of UNIX too... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Q25: What is veronica? A25: veronica: Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives. veronica offers a keyword search of most gopher-server menu titles in the entire gopher web. As archie is to ftp archives, veronica is to gopherspace. A veronica search produces a menu of gopher items, each of which is a direct pointer to a gopher data source. Because veronica is accessed through a gopher client, it is easy to use, and gives access to all types of data supported by the gopher protocol. To try veronica, select it from the "Other Gophers" menu on Minnesota's gopher server, or point your gopher at: Name=veronica (search menu items in most of GopherSpace) Type=1 Port=70 Path=1/veronica Host=futique.scs.unr.edu -- | Paul Lindner | lindner@boombox.micro.umn.edu | Slipping into madness | | Computer & Information Services | is good for the sake | Gophermaster | University of Minnesota | of comparison. ///// / / / /////// / / / / / / / / //// / / / / / / / / ••Impressions One of the impressive things I remember when I first when to a large university after growing up in a small town, was finding the library. My home town library was a place of discovery and enjoyment for me. When I went off to college, the library was one of the first things I looked into. I spent much time looking around this mountain of knowledge, and I learned much, perhaps more than from classes, in these big libraries. That is the way Internet Gopher strikes me -- like going from a small town library to a big university one. It is a very simple but powerful way to bring information from anywhere, locally or world-wide, to your personal computer. It is easy to set up gopher servers. It is Very Easy to use the gopher clients. The IUBio Biology Archive is now available thru internet Gopher. It is reached at host "ftp.bio.indiana.edu", standard gopher port# 70, with path="". You may also find links to other Biology gophers at this site, including North American, European and Middle East sites, at the time of this writing. Internet gopher is pretty easy to learn to use. Gopher and WAIS provide somewhat different protocols for serving information out to clients over the Internet. Gopher is strong on browsing -- you can find new things just by pointing at lists. WAIS is strong on linking together many dispersed servers to answer a given question. I think they both are good, but I think Gopher is an order of magnitude easier to learn, and install, and consequently will be more useful to more people. Thru the IUBio Biology Archive, you can, for instance, fetch a single sequence entry from Genbank by providing its accession number or locus name as the question: Fetch by accession number <?> X51902 -- will fetch the sequence "Alcaligenes eutrophus gene for 10Sa RNA" Or you can provide key words: Search by keyword, author... <?> Acanthamoeba castellanii -- will list all sequences of that species of amoeba. •Bugs NOTE NOTE NOTE As there are still some bugs in GopherApp which cause it to freeze or bomb, if you are using Mac System 7, you can exit a frozen GopherApp without restarting your Mac: Command-Option-Escape keypress will always abort the front application. Sometimes if you do this, the MacTCP system software may be left in a bad state, and you may need to restart your computer anyway (after safely closing other apps) in order to re-use MacTCP programs. GopherApp Preferences. This file stores your personal customizations for GopherApp. On System 7 Macs, it is found in the System Folder:Preferences: folder. On System 6 macs, it is found in the System Folder: GopherApp requires this file, and of the proper version number. It will make this file if it does not exist. If this file gets corrupted, the GopherApp may fail. If you have problems, especially starting GopherApp, erase this file then try again. CSO phonebook works at simple level. GopherApp doesn't query CSO server for valid fields as it might, so listed fields may fail. Some queries may fail do to improper formatting (I'm no CSO expert). I've added WHOIS phonebook type "w" since it is just a child object of TextGopher + Search question. You can find a list of world wide WHOIS servers at the IUBIO gopher, along w/ CSO servers. The WAIS searching now works properly. >> Fixed for long paths 6 Jul I tried to implement a window-saving feature to have new gopher folder items replace the current parent gopher folder, as per the Hypercard client. >> dropped from gopherapp In System 7, the Telnet sessions should be automatically launched. >> fixed 24 jun >>> Bug reports from field, problems fixed (as of 26may92): 1) The types of a saved session (IGo4) and the app (SApp) are not the same as the predifined (IGo4/IGo4) >> fixed 2) When I cancel a TCP open, I still get a new window with the defaults from the resource IGo4. [should be fixed] This also happens when I open a empty folder. [feature] >> fixed 7 jun 5) I know its hard but it would be useful to run another app during data-transfer, and to put GopherApp in the background. >> fixed 24 jun One problem I noticed is that when I first started the app it chose a non-text font for the icon titles, which confused me at first. [fixed as of 26may92, also added user pref for text view font] --- A problem that I have is that when I click on an item it will go out .. get the info. and the cms server will close the connection however.. gopher app just sits there until I press command . it will then display the info. [ protocol I used at first waited for ".<CR><LF>" terminator signal. Now, I think, TCP reading routines also notice when door has been slammed shut :) ] >> fixed >>> Bug reports from field, problems still pending: 1) Can you indicate how difficult (how long time) it would take to make a ISO-version? >> I don't intend to do any ISO version. Source is available >> for those who want to add this enough to work on it. 3) Some of the items in Gopher Prefs (small icons) are greyed out (not implemented yet?) >> fixed 7 jul 6) The clock, it doesn't rotate while TCP is working... >> maybe later ---- Also, while composing this message, I had a minor problem with the last line getting cut off, probably because the view was just slightly short. >> fixed --- A small comment on GopherApp. If you open a config file in text mode, add a new gopher and save it, it becomes a TEXT file and Open... doesn't seem to work properly. It should preserve the IGo4 file type. >> use Edit gopher item menu I can't seem to get GopherApp to work with a Gopher server running on the same Mac. I am using the Gopher Mac server and have no problems with the Gopher client hypercard stack. But GopherApp hangs at "TCP is waiting to open". [no idea where problem is... later] >> Reports from field say this problem has disappeared (v 1.2) --- Whenever I double click on a goper server that does not respond, (I suspect that it is off line)...the program hangs with a clock face at the message TCP established. I have to reboot tht system to get out of this hang. Command period would be a nice interrupt here. >> Command-period does work now, though it is a bit slow >> to respond during name lookup (lean on keys about a minute >> or lower the time-out preference). --- ...GopherApp seemed a bit slow when transferring large files. >> 24 jun version should be noticeably faster -- ... get dialog/alert "Could not start the application because of a program error". Disabling the TOPS 3.0 INIT sees GopherApp load OK. ... the only other MacTCP application I've had a problem with is WAIS but I didn't try localizing the problem in that case. [gopherapp and TOPS don't get along, reason unknown] --- ...trying to save files, and every time I tried to, GopherApp gave a "disk error". >> This was a System 7/Apple Events bug, fixed 7 July We were wondering if there was a way to redirect the App to our server. >> see the Gopher Prefs button "Save Front Window" --- I don't have access to a DNS ... need to use Hosts file. >> Not yet. Gopher is great, but *please* make it possible to put it in the background (switch to another application) while Gopher is transferring files. >>> fixed --- i'm running gopher on a mac. when i double-click to receive a text file from a server i'm getting incomplete files; they just stop before the physical end of the file. this has been consistient behavior since i started using gopher. what's up? >>> no idea, unless it is a time-out. You can try increasing the >>> tcp timeout to 1800, 3600 or larger. Please send more info >>> if any of you see this. --- I am running the Macintosh server from boombox.micro.umn.edu, which is nice. I can connect to it with the Hypercard client, but I have problems using GopherApp 1.1b8. >> I've never tested GopherApp w/ Mac Gopher Server. Some say the problem >> is fixed as of version 1.2b. No idea what it might be or have been. --- I seem to be having trouble getting any of the "appearance" prefs to function. Item view and text view prefs have no effect, either immediate or after quiting and restarting. >> this must be a system-specific problem with your setup >> -- those prefs should be working. Need more info. --- One suggestion is to provide a view with no. of bytes if possible. >> only if the server sends that info. See IUBio Gopher Server date & size >> modification. --- I think you know that little icons can't be activated >> fixed v1.3 did you think of displaying the size of documents ? >> Server must send size info, see above Transfers sometimes take a long time, and you cannot send Gopher App back to the background >> fixed v1.2 Could not complete your request because of a program error. ... when I tried to go into a folder (ie directory) that had no files in it. >>> fixed v1.2 --- 1. Download in the background. >> done 2. Show some indication of progress, either % of file retrieved or the size of the total file as well as how much has already been downloaded. >> only if server sends size info, see above. after restarting my Mac I was no longer able to even start up GopherApp. On every attempt I got a pop-up window saying: "Could not start the application because of a program error." >> damaged System Folder:Preferences:"Gopher Preferences" file. >> Trash it and try again. --- I have been using the GopherApp Mac gopher client to access files on a Unix file server, and I have noticed that it does not always display the entire contents of a text file. The Unix client displays the entire file, so I am fairly sure the file is OK. The Mac client just truncates the end of the file, usually after the first 50 or so lines, but it gives no error message. I have tried lengthening mi TCP timeout values, but it didn't help. >>> need more info -- same file truncated always >>> at same place? all files truncated or just some? >>> if same file, send copy of file or point me to gopher link --- GopherApp can bring the "Gopher-Dave" window to the front with out a problem, but the "Info-Mac (sumex-aim)" won't come to the front. >> parentheses are part of Mac Menu item command set. Needs fancy fix. >> Ignore the bug for now (not damaging). --- Hi new gopher app looks good, however I am running EvenBetterBus error, an init that causes a bus error when you write to a nil pointer. I currently get a bus error most times that I open a gopher 'folder' gopherapp keeps running OK but its a bit worrying. (The write to nil error also occurs when I hit the send button in the mailing bit) >> I tracked that one down, with a *lot* of effort (and thanks >> for tip on MrBusError tool). Problem w/ a call to MacTCP DNR >> (and lacking in DNR documentation). --- I have a 13" RGB monitor and a 19" gray scale monitor attached to my Mac so that they form a following desktop: Even when GopherApp windows are all in the far left upper corner, new windows are sometimes placed too low (x) or at the middle (bottom) of the desktop (X) so that they are half hidden. >> GopherApp relies on MacApp for window placement. Maybe new version of >> MacApp will cure this. Don't hold your breath for a fix on this one. --- The latest release of Mac Gopher does not seem to display the CSO information properly, the old version (May 27) did. The "contains" feature does not work >> seems to be fixed now. --- Many folks are using the version of the gopher server that supports the "g" file type for GIF files. GopherApp says Yuck! to this file type and refuses to download it, even though the nifty new suffix mapping code has been told how to handle .gif files. Would it be possible to add support for "undefined" document types beyond 0-9, etc.? This seems a logical extension of the suffix mapping code to include suffix and gopher file type mapping. >> See Gopher type to Mac type map, new in version 1.3b >> Now any new gopher type may be mapped by user to a type GopherApp >> understands. --- I see you fixed the bug with the mac server, great!! >> not intentionally, but I didn't put the bug in intentionally either. I could not get any of the WAIS based gateway searchs to work? >> should be fixed as of version 1.3b --- ••Bug Patrol >>> My thanks to those below and others who have sent comments and bug reports. Keep them coming. gaynor@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu "John M. Sellens" <jmsellen@watdragon.waterloo.edu> edh@inel.gov "Farhad Anklesaria" <fxa@boombox.micro.umn.edu> heycke@sumex-aim.stanford.edu gucpe@gd.chalmers.se (Peter Gustafsson) lsr@taligent.com Rainer.Fuchs@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE wendell@ncc.uky.edu "Daniel K. Appelquist" <da1n+@andrew.cmu.edu> gahussey@agcs.psu.edu Danny Thomas <vthrc@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au> dbd@theory.BCHS.UH.EDU (Dan Davison) tony@library.anu.edu.au "Joel L. Hansen" <jhansen@plains.NoDak.edu> dgaraffa@cumc.cornell.edu (Dave Garaffa) kargo_rh@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Scientists on Disk) Don.Rainwater@UC.EDU edh@inel.gov James Gray <James_Gray@knxmail.umeres.maine.edu> dow@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu John Larson <jlarson@parc.xerox.com> pascal@apollon.meteo.fr 00hwnewsom@LEO.BSUVC.BSU.EDU anderson@fpg.uwaterloo.ca (Glenn Anderson) walkere@cs.rpi.edu noel@wfunet.wfu.edu dgaraffa@bigmac.mskcc.org sbc@vault.WUstl.EDU (Steve Cousins) pda@wdl1.wdl.loral.com j-purnell@evans.ee.adfa.oz.au Brian Denehy <bvd@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au> Heikki.Lehvaslaiho@Helsinki.FI j.williams@pphub.aston.ac.uk cshotton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu Steven_erde@qmcumc.mail.cornell.edu •History GopherApp -- First public release on 25 Mar 92. Derived from biosequence analysis application SeqApp. SeqApp was started Sept. 1990 as MacApp sequence editor/analysis platform on which analysis programs from other authors, typically command line w/ weak user interfaces, could be easily incorporated into a useable Mac interface. 9 Nov 93, v 2.1b117 Stable beta release, still has known bugs but usable. Built on the pointer-based MacApp v 3.1a. A lot of bugs from the v 2.0b release have been chased out. User-interface changes include: + View links by size, date, name, host, ... + "New gopher hole" is simplified way to connect to new gopher + "Find home of link" for Veronica users & other cases to locate root server for any given gopher link + Matching gopher data to Mac applications has been cleaned up w/ Choose Application button in New & Edit gopher links + Mapping of Gopher+ types to Mac types (in Prefs) changed & simplified. + Network preference "Use quickest gopher+ method" is for dialup internet or other slow network links. Cuts amount of data fetched with each directory. + Get Info from link + Mail link maintainer + added support for moo-V and Note gopher types Non-interface changes + TCP code extensively revised + multithreading processes cleaned up 19 Aug 93, v 2.0b3 Major revision. Translated from Object Pascal to C++, and from Macapp version 2 to version 3 (the later was harder than the former). Added many Gopher+ features, including ASK dialogs and alternate views. Added multitreaded execution of TCP transactions (thanks Peter Speck for Nuntius’s example). There are still several known and suspected bugs in this release. 7 Jul 92, v 1.3b52 Various bug fixes to GopherApp, including long paths (>255 char) so now all wais searches should work, mapping to mac types extended to Gopher types, so e.g., new gopher types can be incorporated thru user-editable map ('T'->'8' or 'g'->'9'), or change default behavior (have '0' text always displayed by favorite text editor), binhex transfer is revised, now is a lot FASTER, fixed "Save" bug when file openned from finder, pref: small icon views enabled, pref: disabled edit/new link unless smart user flips switch, pref: dropped "same window", pref: require user locate diggings folder before attempting to use it, 24 Jun 92, v. 1.2b?. Updated Gopher functions, including background data fetching now works properly added binary file type (sound type now = binary) added item date and size display (when server permits (only iubio now)) Gopher Diggings folder for auto-save of files revamped internal structures and operations (be on lookout for new bugs) should be noticeably faster file fetch (esp. for larger files) experimental gopher type to mac file type mapping, including user prefs, editing and launching (sys7) ReadMail (POP mail) now works and is enabled (it's not fancy though) 26 May 92, v1.1b31 -- New TCP timeout option makes this a SLIPpery app, default item font now has sane value, help file now is always found when in app folder, TCP userbreak handles update events, but still doesn't background properly or spin cursor, text view now has default font pref. 12 May 92, v1.1b8 -- various bug fixes, chased out several TCP related problems, added edit gopher link, new gopher link. Partial backgrounding during long gopher fetches -- not working completely yet. Known bug of limit to path length of Pascal string size [255] that truncates, for instance, some long wais-gatewayed document paths. 21 Apr 92 minor update: corrected GopherApp file creator signature, added domain name server lookup cache. 25 Mar 92, v1.0a41+. First release to general public. Also released SeqApp for biologists.