[gopher] Re: Strategy: end of Gopher in Mozilla

[JumpJet Mailbox <jumpjetinfo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Glad to see that someone (other than JumpJet) is using GopherS.  That Server 
software has got to be the absolute easiest to get up and running (6 minutes is 
typical).
"mdbird@xxxxxxxxxxx" <mdbird@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:  I am not sure I am a typical 
Gopher user there may be no such thing but=20
I thought I would give my views on the future strategy.

I started using Gopher three years ago as a way of challenging=20
students on my Networking course who had their own web servers at home=20
and thought they knew everything about network servers.

Obviously Gopher is an exotic and certainly is not a preparation for=20
the future and I have been subject to snide comments from colleagues=20
about teaching outdated technologies.

But I cite two main reasons for persisting with Gopher servers.

On lower level courses I use GopherS on Windows XP as my Gopher=20
Server.
This introduces the students to the concept of services run by the=20
operating system and the notion of servers using different ports. Also=20
by using a range of client software from Lynx, Hgopher, WSgopher,=20
Firefox and even patched IE 6.
I can clearly demonstrate that how a client interaction with the same=20
server software can produce vastly differing results depending on the=20
features of the client software. The students are genuinely intrigued=20
to find out that there are other ways of serving web pages and=20
concealing a website within a Gopher server. This is where Firefox=20
stands head and shoulders above the other clients it is very capable=20
delivering a diverse range of file types from Gopher servers. Whereas=20
older clients just spew out HTML code from Gopher servers. For my=20
students a simple fully featured client that deals with web pages is a=20
must to gain their acceptance of Gopher. In the long term the community=20
must ensure that such clients will continue to be available to those=20
that will follow on after us. Lynx, Hgopher and WSgopher just don=E2=80=99t=
cut=20
it as far as my students are concerned.

On higher level courses I use Bucktooth on Ubuntu Linux as my Gopher=20
Server.
This introduces students to the concept of daemons (inetd and xinetd)=20
TCP/IP services and wrappers. Bucktooth is a fine example of the power=20
of PERL and its installation scripts are an effective simple=20
demonstration of how PEARL scripts should work.

For me Gopher provides a different and interesting way of showing how=20
things really work rather than just using the safe sanitised offerings=20
of today, that make things so simple that students don=E2=80=99t fully=20
understand what they have achieved.

Regards

Mike Bird






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