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The program 'gopher' is a browsing tool which was primarily used for retrieving
text information.
Some servers
allow you to search for keywords in a database and
retrieve database entries
from a menu
presented afterwards. The keywords
should
be of high significance (e.g., an accession number).
SECURITY ADVICE:
Databases accessed by GOPHER will nor run under the control of the
local administration. Be aware that the result might not match the
quality constraints applies
usually.
This is true in particular for non-academic sites.
Amongst others, the following 'gopher' servers are available:
% gopher
You can also try other programs like 'xgopher' or 'mosaic'.
(If you
have access to 'lynx' or 'mosaic' ,
you should
use these programs instead of 'gopher'.) After you have started
'gopher', you should see a
menu list. Use the cursor keys to select an option and hit
<RETURN> to activate the field.
In Europe, search for "EMBnet Information Resource", then
"Database", and you will find the
databases mentioned above.
To do a database search, select one of the databases and you will be prompted to
enter a keyword.
The hits will be presented
as menu options. Selecting either of these gets you the text on
the screen.
After having inspected a text file, you can either continue with
<RETURN>,
save it by pressing the <S> key or mail it. Save it now,
and then convert the format
of the retrieved
sequence as described in section "Reformatting
Sequences" .
NOTE: The filename of the sequence saved will change during this
procedure; see note
in the reformat section .
Indiana: GENBANK database
Houston: PIR database
You must be connected to the Internet to
contact a remote server.
To connect to a 'gopher' server, you need to have the so-called
'gopher'
client program. Both client and server software is available
from the University of Minnesota,
where 'gopher' was developed.
Program versions for various platforms,
including PCs and Macintoshes,
exist.
To start 'gopher' on a terminal or terminal emulator, type
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