gopher is ``a lookup tool that lets you prowl through
the Internet by selecting resources from menus"
[p. 233]EK:UNIX.
The Gopher system is set of interconnected ASCII based menus.
To select a menu, simply press the ENTER key.
To cycle through a list of menu, use the arrow keys.
Using gopher (also the name of a program to access the Gopher system), users can access files, copy them, print them, mail them. They can also FTP programs to their local machine. Or access databases; phone books.
Since its conception in the early 90's, there is now more than 1300 know gopher servers around the world, each providing information to users.
Tools used to browse the Gopher system include gopher, and xmosaic.
xmosaic will be discussed later. xgopher and gopher follow the same principles, except that gopher is ASCII based so can be used on VT100 terminal.