GopherProxy

	beginners.txt - gopher-tutorials - The gopher tutorials project.
	git clone git://bitreich.org/gopher-tutorials/ git://enlrupgkhuxnvlhsf6lc3fziv5…
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	beginners.txt (2748B)
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	1 Hello dear reader,
	2
	3 if you have heard about gopher and want to explore its space but feel
	4 lost about how to achieve that, this text is for you. We will assume
	5 that you have no technical skill so everyone can read this.
	6
	7 Gopher is the name of a protocol for sharing text, images or any kind
	8 of file. A network protocol is a set of rules which allow to create a
	9 common service for different people, everyone needing to respect
	10 thoses rules to be able to communicate with each other. Some people
	11 writing code (called Developers) will write "Clients" software for the
	12 end-user and others developers will write "Servers" software which
	13 will allow to publish content. The gopher protocol is so simple that
	14 anyone with basic knowledge of computer science can write its own
	15 client or server easily. Using gopher implies to understand the
	16 protocol itself, but we promise it's really easy.
	17
	18 Gopher is an enjoyable way to browse informations. Every gopherhole
	19 [that is the name given to someone's gopher content] looks like
	20 another one. There is no way to customize a gopherhole display except
	21 from the text. While this can look a bit harsh, this makes gopher
	22 universal. If you know how to browse one gopherhole, you will know how
	23 to browse all others because the way to do it is consistent.
	24
	25 So, let's speak about how gopher works. First, gopher requires 3
	26 informations if you want to get content. You will need a remote
	27 address to connect to [it's called an hostname, like "floodgap.com"],
	28 the data type and a path to the data. The url looks like this :
	29
	30 gopher://hostname/type/path
	31
	32 The most important type is the type 1, which is the gopher menu
	33 type. A gopher menu is an index made of differents lines, each line
	34 having a type field to know what kind of data it leads to. It will
	35 allow you to browse from menu to menu or from a menu to a content
	36 (image, text, music, archives...).
	37
	38 Here is the list of the most used data types allowed on gopher, the
	39 complete list is defined in a document named RFC 1436 which defines
	40 the gopher protocol :
	41
	42 - type i is a line of text in the menu, it's not a link
	43 - type 0 is a link to a text document
	44 - type 1 is a link to another gopher menu
	45 - type 3 means an error
	46 - type 7 (search) asks a text input and lead to another menu
	47 - type 9 is a link to a binary file (data archives, music...)
	48 - type g is a link to a GIF file (animated picture)
	49 - type I is a link to an image file
	50 - type h is a link which lead to use another protocol (irc, http...)
	51
	52 Only the types menu and search can lead to another content. Asking
	53 another type will lead to downloading a file.
	54
	55 Now that you are ready to browse the gopher space, we recommend you to
	56 read the others tutorials about the gopher client software you would
	57 like to use.