if you want a copy of this lesson to be sent to you.
"One must learn by doing the thing; though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try." -- Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings
Bouncing around Gopherspace, finding neat files and leaving bookmarks, is fun for a while. Soon, however, you are going to want to find a way to locate stuff in Gopherspace a little more quickly.
That's where Veronica comes in. Veronica -- Very Easy, Rodent-Oriented, Net-Wide Index to Computerized Archives -- is a search tool that allows you to quickly scan Gopherspace for particular files and directories.
Veronica is a program that you access through Gopher. Veronica asks you to enter a keyword, and it then searches through a database of over 5,500 Gopher servers and over 10 million Gopher "items" for files and directories whose titles contain your keyword.
What makes Veronica REALLY amazing is that it not only finds these files and directories, it also GETS all of these files and directories and places them on a temporary Gopher menu that you can browse through! This temporary menu works just like any other Gopher menu!
Let's take a look at a basic Veronica search. I access my site's Gopher client by typing "gopher" on the command line, and the following menu appears on my screen:
Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0 GOPHER.SQUIRREL.COM
1/8
(root menu)
Information about the Squirrel Gopher Server
What's new in the Squirrel Gopher
Since I used the UNIX Gopher client the first two days of this week, I
figured it was only fair to use the VM Gopher client for two days as
well :)
I move the cursor down to the "Search Gopherspace using Veronica" menu line, press enter, and the following menu appears on my screen:
Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0 gopher.tc.umn.edu
1/10
Search all of Gopherspace using Veronica - 4800+ servers
Notice that not only do I get to choose which Veronica program site I want to conduct my search through, I also get to choose between two types of searches:
1. "Search Gopherspace by Title word(s)" which will show me EVERY FLE AND DIRECTORY in Gopherspace whose title contains my keyword, or
2. "Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title word(s)" which will show me ONLY THE DIRECTORIES (a.k.a. menus) in Gopherspace whose titles contain my keyword.
Obviously, the return from an "ONLY DIRECTORIES" search will be much smaller than that from a "Search Gopherspace" search. If you are using a common word as your keyword (such as "Internet", "Gopher", "Economics", etc.), your best bet is to do an "ONLY DIRECTORIES" search to keep from being flooded with returns :)
I want to do a search of every Gopher directory on the planet that has the word "Roadmap" in it.
The choice of which site I conduct my search through is completely up to me. There should not be a difference between the sites and the results that I will get (notice I said should not), so I can pick any site that I want. Since my former best friend used to live in Dallas, I move the cursor down to the "Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title word(s) (via U T Dallas)" search entry, press enter, and the following appears on my screen:
Enter keyword(s):
The keyword I want Veronica to look for is "Roadmap," so I type
Roadmap
press enter, prop my feet up on the desk, and wait for something to appear on my screen.
Eventually, the following menu appears on my screen:
Rice CMS Gopher 2.4.0 veronica.utdallas.edu
1/8
Find ONLY DIRECTORIES by Title Word(s)
COOL! Although each of these menus are located on different servers
around the world, I can access them ALL from this menu (although
further investigation shows that NONE of these menus have anything
to do with this workshop < Isn't Veronica NEAT?? There are a few more Veronica commands that you
can use, but I'll let you discover them in tonight's homework :)
ACCESSING VERONICA
If you wander around Gopherspace enough, you are bound to find a
site with a link to Veronica. Chances are, your site even has
its own Veronica link!
I would strongly recommend finding a Veronica menu somewhere and
planting a bookmark there. You will find that Veronica is an
ESSENTIAL Internet tool, and not having Veronica in your booklist
is going to be a BIG mistake.
You can find Veronica menus on most of the Gopher sites that you
can telnet to (see the list of telnet Gopher sites in MAP19),
and you can also access the Veronica menu through the University of
Minnesota's Gopher server (gopher.micro.umn.edu 70).
PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
I have personally had some problems with Veronica. I'm not sure if
I am the only one who has had these problems, or if these problems
are universal -- it is quite possible that I am living in a Veronica
"black hole" and Veronica works perfectly well everywhere else but
Alabama.
It is my personal experience that Veronica is so over-burdened that
your chances of getting the Veronica program to accept your keyword
on the first (or even the fifth) try are pretty slim. More likely
than not, you are going to get a
Too many connections - Try again soon.
message. This can become very frustrating very quickly.
Other times, you will encounter the now-famous
Empty menu; no items selected or nothing available
error message that we discussed the other day. This is also frustrating,
especially when you have to retype your keyword every time this error
appears on your screen.
The final error that I seem to encounter a lot in Veronica is the one
that tells me that Veronica has found nothing matching my keyword.
Unfortunately, experience has shown me that this may or may not be accurate.
There are a couple of things that you have to remember when using
Veronica:
- Veronica is incredibly overloaded
that may or may not be accurate
- The most important ingredient in any Veronica search
is PATIENCE
While I was writing this lesson, I was also attempting a Veronica
search using the keyword "Crispen". After 32 attempts, I still have
not been able to get Veronica to accept this keyword without giving
me an error message :(
HOMEWORK:
1. Play around with Veronica :)
2. Find the "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Veronica"
and the "How to Compose Veronica Queries" documents and
read them. These documents can be found in most Veronica
menus. You can also find them in the "Search all of
Gopherspace Using Veronica" menu on the University of
Minnesota's Gopher server.
SOURCES:
HOW TO COMPOSE VERONICA QUERIES - June 23, 1994: Steven Foster
Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ) about Veronica - July 23, 1994:
Steven Foster and Fred Barrie .
Patrick Douglas Crispen The views expressed in this letter do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa.
ROADMAP: COPYRIGHT PATRICK CRISPEN 1994. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
THESE LESSONS ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
BeOnTheNet Inc.
- If a Veronica keyword search does not work the first
time, keep trying
- When Veronica works, it is a thing of beauty
- When Veronica doesn't work, it gives you error messages
- If you get an error message, try your keyword again
pcrispe1@ua1vm.ua.edu
The University of Alabama
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