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article-20h-geomyidae.mw - tgtimes - The Gopher Times |
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git clone git://bitreich.org/tgtimes git://enlrupgkhuxnvlhsf6lc3fziv5h2hhfrinws65d7roiv6bfj7d652fid.onion/tgtimes (git://bitreich.org) |
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README |
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article-20h-geomyidae.mw (6306B) |
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1 .SH 20h |
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2 20h Presents: Geomyidae |
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3 .2C 14v |
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4 . |
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5 .PP |
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6 This project existed since a while, and kept improving. |
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7 In this interview with 20h, he shows us what Geomyidae's got under the hood. |
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8 . |
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9 .QP |
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10 What is Geomyidae? |
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11 . |
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12 .PP |
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13 Geomyidae is a Unix/Linux daemon/service serving the gopher protocol. |
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14 . |
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15 .QP |
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16 So what is gopher? |
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17 . |
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18 .PP |
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19 Gopher here is an internet protocol, which was first developed at the University of Minnesota. |
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20 After its short success, it declined, but is now striving again to be used for its simplicity and hierarchy. |
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21 For better visual display of your gopher experience, use something like links, lynx or sacc. |
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22 Those are gopher clients. |
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23 . |
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24 .QP |
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25 How does Geomyidae help with getting started with gopher? |
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26 . |
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27 .PP |
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28 The installation of Geomyidae is very simple. |
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29 You can setup your Geomyidae right away: |
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30 . |
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31 .1C |
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32 . |
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33 .DS |
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34 git clone git://bitreich.org/geomyidae |
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35 cd geomyidae |
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36 make |
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37 ./geomyidae -b $(pwd) -p 7070 & |
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38 curl -s gopher://localhost:7070 |
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39 .DE |
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40 . |
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41 .2C 94v |
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42 . |
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43 .PP |
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44 Yes, curl supports gopher! |
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45 And it supports gopher and TLS too! |
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46 . |
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47 .QP |
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48 Are there many alternatives among gopher daemons? |
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49 . |
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50 .PP |
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51 Yes, there are many. |
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52 Some are there due to historical reasons, others have gone out of shape over time. |
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53 One of the most popular alternatives is pygopherd. |
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54 . |
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55 .QP |
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56 How does Geomyidae compares to other implementations? |
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57 . |
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58 .PP |
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59 Geomyidae offers a unique simple way of expressing gopher content. |
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60 See the manpage or the examples in the source for how .gph files are formatted. |
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61 And it does just what you want it to do. |
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62 No strange abstraction files like in the original gopher daemons are the default way. |
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63 In the newest release of Geomyidae compatibility scripts were added. |
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64 But those are to preserve the unique history of gopher. |
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65 . |
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66 .QP |
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67 Did Geomyidae have significant evolutions since the beginning? |
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68 . |
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69 .PP |
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70 Yes. |
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71 Originally Geomyidae was named gopherd for Plan 9. |
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72 It then was ported over to Linux. |
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73 On Linux it was renamed to Geomyidae. |
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74 During that development much has happened: There were significant speedups (due to the patches and work of other people!), features were added especially in new dynamic content handling. |
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75 You can easily see all features in the documentation and especially the simple manpage. |
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76 . |
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77 .QP |
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78 Does Geomyidae work with all gopher clients? |
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79 . |
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80 .PP |
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81 Yes. |
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82 Geomyidae supports the original protocol from the beginning, up to modern gopher with TLS. |
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83 For the intermediary gopher+ protocol there is a compatibility layer. |
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84 . |
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85 .QP |
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86 Has NSA inserted a backdoor onto Geomyidae? |
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87 . |
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88 .PP |
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89 I am not allowed to tell you. |
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90 . |
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91 .QP |
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92 How does gopher help with privacy? |
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93 . |
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94 .PP |
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95 The gopher protocol has the unique property that all data you send over the line can be easily controlled and seen. |
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96 This is different to HTTP, where headers, HTML and Javascript got so complex, it is uncontrollable. |
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97 See the gopher onion project |
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98 .FS |
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99 gopher://bitreich.org/1/onion |
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100 .FE |
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101 for how to combine this with tor for total privacy and anonymity. |
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102 . |
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103 .QP |
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104 Are there TLS support on some gopher clients already? |
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105 . |
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106 .PP |
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107 There is support in curl, mpv/ffmpeg, sacc and more. |
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108 It is very easy to add TLS support to any client. |
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109 You simply connect via TLS on the gopher TCP port (default: 70) and if it works, |
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110 keep that connection open. |
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111 . |
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112 .QP |
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113 Are there been any evolution of the gopher protocol itself since the beginning of Geomyidae? |
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114 . |
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115 .PP |
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116 The technology used is simple. |
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117 Gopher does not allow requests, which begin with the first bytes of a TLS request. |
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118 So any proper and old gopher daemon will simply refuse the connection. |
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119 Then the client is free to reconnect without TLS based on its security configuration. |
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120 Any ISDN line will handle such probing requests for TLS easily. |
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121 . |
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122 .QP |
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123 Did Geomyidae have to adapt itself to the gopher protocol? Did it make gopher change? |
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124 . |
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125 .PP |
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126 Geomyidae changed the part of gophespace it was able to reach. |
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127 Many servers run on Geomyidae. |
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128 There is software written just for Geomyidae and its gph format. |
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129 The TLS extension of the protocol came from Bitreich / Geomyidae. |
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130 We also set the standard to simply use UTF-8 as default representation in gopher menus and so bring it into the 21st century. |
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131 I can conclude: Yes, Geomyidae changed and will change gopher. |
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132 . |
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133 .QP |
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134 Have you seen Geomyidae ever used outside a hobby project? |
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135 . |
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136 .PP |
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137 Well, Bitreich is serious in changing the software world. |
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138 Most of gopherspace is »hobby projects«. |
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139 But then, most of gopherspace is made from heart blood and love, which makes it part of the life of the authors. |
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140 . |
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141 .QP |
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142 Is Geomyidae ready for non-hobby uses? |
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143 . |
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144 .PP |
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145 Geomyidae is ready for any use. |
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146 It is stable and optimized to scale better than the cloud. |
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147 . |
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148 .QP |
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149 Geomyidae uses ".gph" files. |
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150 . |
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151 .PP |
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152 Does it replace the gophermap standard? |
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153 Yes, in Geomyidae it does. |
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154 Gph is simpler and easier to adapt to, especially when you come from some markup world. |
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155 . |
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156 .QP |
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157 Does Geomyidae support dynamic pages? |
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158 . |
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159 .PP |
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160 Geomyidae supports two forms of dynamic pages: One which uses the gph markup and one, where the script/application outputs raw gopher output. |
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161 Additionally it supports in the latest release a form of REST, where paths are transformed into arguments to scripts. |
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162 There is also support for index.dcgi/index.cgi scripts to have better looking paths and URIs. |
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163 . |
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164 .QP |
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165 Is Geomyidae already packaged in some Linux/BSD distributions? |
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166 . |
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167 .PP |
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168 As far as I know it is packaged in gentoo, Archlinux (and more), all BSDs. |
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169 Since it is so simple to package: Just extract the tarball, run make and make install, the packages are easily made for any package manager. |
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170 . |
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171 .QP |
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172 What is planned for the next releases of Geomyidae? |
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173 . |
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174 .PP |
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175 As of now I have worked through my whole long-standing TODO list for Geomyidae. |
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176 New ideas will evolve from people sending in patches or through practical need. |
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177 Geomyidae follows the Bitreich manifesto |
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178 .FS |
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179 gopher://bitreich.org/0/documents/bitreich-manifesto.md |
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180 .FE |
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181 where a software can be done. |
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182 . |
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183 .QP |
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184 How to get involved? Getting help, discussing, bug hunting, code contribution, documentation... |
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185 . |
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186 .PP |
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187 If anyone wants to get involved, first download Geomyidae, run it, have fun using it, creating gopher content. |
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188 If you run into problems, have patches or suggestions, come on IRC |
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189 .FS |
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190 ircs://irc.bitreich.org/#bitreich-en |
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191 .FE |
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192 and discuss with us your problem. |
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193 For e-mail, send such requests to 20h@r-36.net. |
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194 All contact is in the manpage too. |
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195 . |
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196 .QP |
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197 Can I have an ice cream? |
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198 . |
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199 .PP |
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200 Yes, you will get one, once we meet again. |
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