Roadmap For The Information Superhighway Internet Training Workshop

MAP20: Bookmarks and Booklists

"He that travels much knows much."
Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia

Once you find a neat Gopher site or menu, how are you ever going to remember how to get back to it?

Easy! Leave a bookmark.

Bookmarks are "flags" that allow you to mark a neat Gopher menu or file so that you can return to that menu or file whenever you want. All of your bookmarks are kept in a "booklist" that acts just like a personal gopher menu!

Each Gopher client has its own particular Bookmark commands, but they all work on the same basic principle: you leave a bookmark at a site that interests you, and you can access that bookmark though a booklist that acts just like a regular gopher menu.

BOOKMARKS AND BOOKLISTS IN THE UNIX GOPHER CLIENT

If you are using a UNIX Gopher client, there are four basic UNIX bookmark commands that you need to remember:
a
Adds the item that the --> is pointing at to your booklist.
A
Adds the current directory that you are in to your booklist.
v
Views your booklist
d
Deletes a bookmark from your booklist
In MAP18: Gopher (Part One), I showed you the fictional "gopher.squirrel.com" root Gopher server. Let's go back to that Gopher server and look at how we can start using bookmarks to make our lives a little easier: 
                       Root gopher server: gopher.squirrel.com

          1.   Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server.
          2.   What's new in the Squirrel Gopher.
          3.   Network Resources, Services and Information/
          4.   Squirrel Staff Directory <CSO>
          5.   Squirrel Human Resources Information/
          6.   Potpourri, Miscellaneous Topics/
          7.   Local Squirrel Archives/
      --> 8.   Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World/
If I type an upper case "A", I will add this entire menu to my booklist (under the entry "Root gopher server: gopher.squirrel.com"). If I type a lower case "a", I will add whatever the --> is pointing at to my booklist.

I'm going to do both.

I type an upper case "A", and the following appears on my screen:

I can cancel this, rename this bookmark, or accept this name. I'm going to accept the name. Once I do this, the bookmark is added to my booklist.

I also want to add the "Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World" menu to my booklist, so I move the --> cursor down to that line and type a lower case "a". I go through the "name" prompt again, and the entry is then added to my Booklist.

Okay ... I've just added two bookmarks to my booklist. What does that mean? Well, if I type the letter "v", the following menu appears on my screen: 

                             Bookmarks

          1.   Root gopher server: gopher.squirrel.com/
      --> 2.   Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World/
COOL! I've just created my own Gopher menu! Best of all, I get to decide what information and sites are going to be on this Gopher menu!

Since these two bookmarks look a little lonely, I think I should add SURAnet my booklist too. My booklist acts just like any other Gopher menu, so I move the cursor down to the "Other Gopher and Information Servers around the world" line, press return, and the following menu appears on my screen: 

               Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World

          1.   All the Gopher Servers in the World/
          2.   Search All the Gopher Servers in the World <?>
          3.   Search titles in Gopherspace using veronica/
          4.   Africa/
          5.   Asia/
          6.   Europe/
          7.   International Organizations/
          8.   Middle East/
      --> 9.   North America/
          10.  Pacific/
          11.  Russia/
          12.  South America/
          ... snip snip snip (these are my Internet scissors) ...
We've seen this before!

I move the cursor down to "North America", press return, and the following menu appears on my screen: 

                                    North America

          1.   Canada/
          2.   Costa Rica/
          3.   Mexico/
      --> 4.   USA/
Since I know that SURAnet is in the U.S., I move the cursor down to "USA", press return, and the following appears on my screen: 
                                          USA

      --> 1.   All/
          2.   General/
          3.   Alabama/
          4.   Alaska/
          5.   Arizona
          ... snip snip snip ...
          51.  West Virginia/
          52.  Wisconsin/
          53.  Wyoming/
I select the "All" menu, and after a little while the following menu appears on my screen: 
                                          All

          1.  1994 California Voter information/
          2.  AACRAO National Office, Washington, DC/
          3.  AATF - American Association of Teachers of French/
          4.  ACADEME THIS WEEK (Chronicle of Higher Education)/
          ... snip snip snip ...
          988. SUNY Office of Library Services
     -->  989. SURAnet NIC/
          990. Safety Information Resources on the InterNet/
          991. Sailor - Maryland's Information Network/
          ... snip snip snip ...
Now I have a choice. I can either move the cursor down to "SURAnet NIC" and type a lower case "a" to add SURAnet to my booklist, or I can enter the SURAnet Gopher and type an upper case "A". Either way will give me the same result.

I'm lazy. I type a lower case "a".

Let's see what my booklist looks like now. I type the letter "v" and the following menu appears on my screen: 

                             Bookmarks

          1.   Root gopher server: gopher.squirrel.com/
          2.   Other Gopher and Information Servers around the World/
      --> 3.   SURAnet NIC/
Now, if I ever need to get to SURAnet, all I will have to do is access my booklist!

BOOKMARKS AND BOOKLISTS IN THE RICE CMS GOPHER

Despite what UNIX fans may tell you, not everyone in the world has a UNIX account. Many new Internet users -- especially new users at some U.S. colleges and universities -- have accounts on IBM VM mainframes (as a matter of fact, my main account is on a VM mainframe).

The VM Gopher menu is set-up a little differently from the UNIX Gopher menu: 

     Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0                            GOPHER.SQUIRREL.COM
     1/8
                                  (root menu)
     <document>  Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server
     <document>  What's new in the Squirrel Gopher
     <menu>      Network Resources, Services and Information
     <phonebk>   Squirrel staff directory
     <menu>      Squirrel Human Resources Information
     <menu>      Potpourri, Miscellaneous Topics
     <menu>      Local Squirrel Archives
     <menu>_     Other Gopher Servers

     1= Help      2=          3= Return    4= Print     5= Receive  6= Find
     7= Backward  8= Forward  9= Bookmark 10= Booklist 11=         12= Quit
The VM Gopher has a whole bunch of nifty features. It prints the address of the Gopher site that you are connected to in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen (UNIX users have to type "=" to get this information).

It also tells you if a menu item is a file or menu without using any weird "/" or "." symbols.

One of the drawbacks to the VM Gopher is that there is no bookmark command equivalent to UNIX's lower case "a" command. The VM Gopher's bookmark command acts just like UNIX's upper case "A" command, which means that you have to actually enter a site or menu item if you want to add that site or menu item to your booklist.

Here is what I mean: 

     Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0                            GOPHER.SQUIRREL.COM
     1/8
                                  (root menu)
     <document>  Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server
     <document>  What's new in the Squirrel Gopher
     <menu>      Network Resources, Services and Information
     <phonebk>   Squirrel staff directory
     <menu>      Squirrel Human Resources Information
     <menu>      Potpourri, Miscellaneous Topics
     <menu>      Local Squirrel Archives
     <menu>_     Other Gopher Servers

     1= Help      2=          3= Return    4= Print     5= Receive  6= Find
     7= Backward  8= Forward  9= Bookmark 10= Booklist 11=         12= Quit
To add this root menu to my booklist, all I have to do is press the PF9 key (I won't be able to rename the bookmark entry, though).

However, if I want to add the "Other Gopher Servers" menu to my booklist, I have to first enter the "Other Gopher Servers" menu (by moving the _ cursor down to the "Other Gopher Servers" line and pressing enter), and THEN press PF9.

After I have done this, I can view my new booklist by typing PF10: 

     Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0
     1/8

     <menu>      (root menu)
     <menu>_     Other Gopher Servers

     1= Help      2=          3= Return    4= Print     5= Load     6= Find
     7= Backward  8= Forward  9= Delete   10= Refresh  11=         12= Quit
Notice that once I enter my booklist, three things happen:
  1. The address in the upper-right-hand corner disappears (my booklist is a personal Gopher menu that does not have an address) :)

  2. PF9 changes from "Bookmark" to "Delete". If I ever need to a delete a bookmark, I'll have to enter my Booklist, move the _ cursor to the entry that I want to delete, and then press PF9.

  3. PF10 changes from "Booklist" to "Refresh". After I have deleted an entry from my Booklist, I can refresh my Booklist screen by pressing PF10.

HOMEWORK

  1. Play!
  2. Add some sites to your booklist.
  3. Get ready for another pop-quiz ... and this one WON'T be multiple choice >:) 

   (\__/)  .~    ~. ))
   /O O `./      .'               PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN
  {O__,   \    {                   PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU
    / .  . )    \                THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
    |-| '-' \    } ))
   .(   _(   )_.'         Roadmap: Copyright 1994 Patrick Crispen.
  '---.~_ _ _&                      All rights reserved.

                          The views expressed in this letter do not
                            necessarily represent the views of the
                             University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa.
[Syllabus]Go back to the Syllabus
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Translated to HTML by Linda Sue Sohn (sohn@ll.mit.edu)
@(#)MAP20.html 1.1 (Roadmap Workshop) 2/20/95 08:45:25

Updated: 1995-03-28, 17:37