GopherPup is an Internet information client program, usable on the common
computer systems including Macintosh, Motif/XWindows and MS-Windows.  It
provides an easy-to-use, sophisticated doorway to a wide range of
Internet information services.


GopherPup has several unique strengths

* Display documents in Microsoft's Rich Text Format (RTF) produced by
popular wordprocessors.  RTF not only is a widely-available standard, it
has full support for fonts, styles, embedded images, and the formatting
needed to display publication-quality documents. RTF displays can include a 
variety of fonts including symbols, font sizes and styles, super-scripting and
sub-scripting, tabbing, paragraph formatting, and pictures in both
vector and bitmap forms. 

* Display graphics in a standard, widely-used vector & bitmap format,
Apple Macintosh's PICT.  This format provides high-resolution output,
smaller/faster image transfer, and editable graphics, compared to GIF.

* Display documents in the network HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and
in the popular graphic bitmap format, CompuServe's GIF, as well as plain
text.

* Easily link network resources into any of these documents.  Documents
created in a wordprocessor can be directly displayed and network links
can be placed by simple drag-and-drop methods. 
 
* The hypertext method used is easily extensible to any new format which
can be displayed.

* Browse and search through information on your local computer system
using the same easy methods used for remote systems. The search methods 
use the same query dialogs, and relies on a variant of FreeWAIS-sf software 
which provides for complex and field-specified queries.  With this feature
it will be possible for providers to provide the same information services
throught local CDROM or disk as through remote Internet connections.
This search support is still under development.

* Supports all Gopher+ protocol features, including 
   -- User dialogs for client-server interactions.
   -- Simple and sophisticated multiple view handling.  Easily choose
the format you prefer, whether RTF or Postscript, GIF or JPEG, and
specialty formats, depending on the service and your needs.   Add new
formats readily as needed.
   -- Display of document dates, sizes, and abstracts -- no more
guessing if that document is 5 years old or up-to-date, or if it is
1,000 or 1,000,000 characters long.

* Supports many HTTP/HTML protocol features (more later), and supports
SMTP Mail protocol.

* One source fits all  -- this program is freely available in one
source version that compiles on Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and
X-Windows computer systems. 


NOTE:
This release still includes several bugs and not yet suitable for
extensive use.  

GopherPup is based on the earlier GopherApp program for Macintosh
computers.   Version 0.3 is now freely available at
  <ftp://iubio.bio.indiana.edu:/util/gopher/gopherpup/>.  

There are application executables for Macintosh, MS-Windows, Sun Sparcstation, 
and Silicon Graphics.  Other systems are supported by the underlying toolkit.
This is built on a cross-platform toolkit from the Nat'l Center for 
Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and further extended by the author's 
object-oriented application framework called DCLAP.   The source for these 
toolkits and the applicaiton are freely available.  The home archive location 
for DCLAP is at <ftp://iubio.bio.indiana.edu:/util/dclap/>. 


Comments, bug reports and suggestions for new features may be sent to   
GopherPup@Bio.Indiana.Edu