[gopher] Gopher++ TITLE resource propsal, revision 1.1

[Kim Holviala]

This is a small revision the original gopher++ TITLE resource proposal 
document; the primary change is to allow more than one TITLE resource.


A proposal for a method to include titles in gopher++ menus
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1. The problem

Gopher0 (RFC 1436) menus have no titles. When one is browsing around the 
gopherspace this make no difference, but it is a big problem for 
bookmarking and for automated crawlers like Veronica-2.


2. Gopher++ TITLE resource definition

A TITLE resource in a gopher++ menu is defined as follows:

    filetype  - i
    name      - the actual text of the title
    selector  - TITLE
    host,port - dummy values

A TITLE resource is identical to a regular info resource, only the 
selector is set to a specific string, "TITLE".

An example of a TITLE resource in a gopher menu:
iTitle for this Gopher resource<TAB>TITLE<TAB>dummy.host<TAB>0<CRLF>


3. Conforming client requirements

A conforming client will render any info resource with the word "TITLE" 
in the selector field as a title - possibly with a bigger font or with a 
different color.

A TITLE resource on the first line of a menu is considered the main 
title and can be used for example as a window title and in bookmarking. 
All following TITLE resources should be considered subtitles.


4. Conforming server requirements

A conforming server may include one of more TITLE resources in the 
gopher menus it sends to the client. The main TITLE resource must be 
sent as the first line of the menu.


5. Compatibility

The TITLE resource described here should be fully backwards compatible 
with both old gopher servers and clients.

If an non-conforming server supports gophermaps, it's possible for an 
author to include TITLE resources even if the server doesn't 
specifically support them.

If a non-conforming client receives a TITLE resouce, it will simply 
render it as informational text. As the main TITLE must be on the first 
line of a menu it will look like a title to the user even if the client 
doesn't specifically render it as such.


6. Example code

The Gophernicus Server version 0.5-beta (and later) automatically 
inserts TITLE resources for all menus where a gophermap doesn't exist. 
There is also a patch for the NSCA Mosaic 2.7ck8 gopher client which 
adds support for parsing & rendering the TITLE resources.

gopher://gophernicus.org/1/software/gophernicus/server/
gopher://gophernicus.org/1/software/patches/gopher++/