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Archive-name: auto/comp.infosystems.gopher/Gopher-proposed-enhancements-to-the-internet-Gopher-protocol

The internet Gopher protocol has been quite successful; but this
success has brought demands for enhancements that are difficult 
to efficiently accommodate in the current protocol. Among other things
Gopher needs a good way to transfer binary data, a way to associate more 
information with Gopher items, and a way for Gopher clients to send
information to Gopher servers. To keep gopher implementations
interoperating, it is crucial that protocol enhancements to 
accomodate these need not be made in a patchwork or site-specific
fashion. It is also important that any changes to the Gopher protocol
are upward compatible with current Gopher software.

Wednesday and Thursday of this week, CICnet sponsored a workshop
on Gopher in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At the workshop, representatives
from the University of Minnesota Gopher development team proposed
a set of enhancements to the gopher protocol; the enhanced protocol
is called Gopher+. We have incorporated changes to the Gopher+ proposal 
suggested at the workshop and are now making this proposal generally
available to the gopher community for comment.

Note that the Gopher+ proposal is not set in concrete and may change
as we work to implement Gopher+ clients and servers... but we do not
expect major deviations from the proposal. Note also that the current
Gopher clients will work with Gopher+ servers and Gopher+ clients will
work with current gopher servers. The Gopher+ protocol enhances the
current gopher protocol in a seamless fashion. Think of it this way...
the old gopher could only carry a limited number of nuts in its cheeks,
and Gopher+ is a way to strap an expandable bag on the side of the gopher
so it can carry more nuts than before.

The Gopher+ protocol description is available both via Gopher and via
anonymous ftp.

To fetch it via Gopher, burrow to the University of Minnesota's
gopher server, then to Information about Gopher, then to Gopher Protocol
Information, finally into the Gopher+ directory.  Read the readme and
fetch the representation that suits you best.

Or use anonymous ftp to connect to boombox.micro.umn.edu.  Look in 
/pub/gopher/gopher_protocol/Gopher+/

Please send comments and feedback to the gopher team at:
    <gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu>

A good place to discuss the issues is on the USENET newsgroup
comp.infosystems.gopher.

Many thanks to CICnet and the folks at the Gopher Workshop for the
invaluable feedback and encouragement.

  - The Gopher Team: Bob, Daniel, Farhad, Mark, Paul.