Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list gopher); Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:08:55 -0600 (CST) Received: from mk-filter-4-a-2.mail.uk.tiscali.com ([212.74.100.51]) by glockenspiel.complete.org with esmtp (Exim 4.63) id 1JGxKH-00089N-L5 for gopher@complete.org; Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:08:53 -0600 X-Trace: 655699801/mk-filter-4.mail.uk.tiscali.com/WEBB2C/$ALLOWED_RELAY/ALLOWED-B2C-WEBMAIL/212.74.100.144 X-SBRS: None X-RemoteIP: 212.74.100.144 X-IP-MAIL-FROM: mdbird@lineone.net X-IP-Webmail: TRUE X-IP-BHB: Once X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: Ao8CACU2lEfUSmSQ/2dsb2JhbACBV5AVmSE Received: from mail-4.uk.tiscali.com (HELO mail-4-uk-priv.mail.tiscali.sys) ([212.74.100.144]) by websmtp.tiscali.co.uk with ESMTP; 21 Jan 2008 14:06:29 +0000 Received: from ps30 (10.39.75.145) by mail-4-uk-priv.mail.tiscali.sys (7.3.110.11) id 471F4D2000621BB6 for gopher@complete.org; Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:06:29 +0100 Message-ID: <4295158.1200924389492.JavaMail.root@ps30> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:06:29 +0100 (GMT+01:00) From: "mdbird@lineone.net" <mdbird@lineone.net> To: <gopher@complete.org> Subject: [gopher] Re: Strategy: end of Gopher in Mozilla MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit xOriginalSenderIP: 194.80.187.101 X-Spam-Status: No (score 0.0): none X-Virus-Scanned: by Exiscan on glockenspiel.complete.org at Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:08:53 -0600 X-archive-position: 1809 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: gopher-bounce@complete.org Errors-to: gopher-bounce@complete.org X-original-sender: mdbird@lineone.net Precedence: bulk Reply-to: gopher@complete.org List-help: <mailto:ecartis@complete.org?Subject=help> List-unsubscribe: <mailto:gopher-request@complete.org?Subject=unsubscribe> List-software: Ecartis version 1.0.0 List-Id: Gopher <gopher.complete.org> X-List-ID: Gopher <gopher.complete.org> List-subscribe: <mailto:gopher-request@complete.org?Subject=subscribe> List-owner: <mailto:jgoerzen@complete.org> List-post: <mailto:gopher@complete.org> List-archive: <http://www.complete.org/mailinglists/archives/> X-list: gopher

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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