WHO CARES ABOUT TEXT LAYOUT IN GOPHER?
                             Marc Meléndez Schofield
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   Read the first two lines in this document either as a title and the author
   or as a question and answer (I care about text layout!). I think Gopher is
   great. You just have to write some content in your favourite text editor, 
   and  that's  it. It's a pity that plain text files are so uncomfortable to 
   read.

     There  is  no  need  to  worry,  though. I am working on some scripts in 
   scheme  that  will  allow  you  to write nice text files with little extra 
   effort.  And when I say "little" I mean little, because it would be absurd
   to  work  on  a  system in which it takes longer to encode the text format 
   than  it  would  take  to  actually do the formatting directly in the text 
   file. So the script must be simple to use and minimal (no fancy features).

     I  realize,  of  course, that there is still much space for improvement, 
   but one of the great things about this approach is that it is very easy to
   modify and improve.

     So, what does the first script actually do?

     * It justifies text defined as paragraphs.
     * It allows you to write centred text (like the title here).
     * You can define the width of paragraphs and margins.
     * Sections are numbered automatically.
     * You can define pre-formatted text.
     * You can insert endnotes, like this one:
     [See endnote number 1]

   1. How to use the script

     The  easiest  way  to  see how to use the script is to look at the souce 
   file that generated this text file. It is pretty self-explanatory. You can
   find it at my gopher site, in the programming/scheme directory:

                  gopher://sdf.lonestar.org/1/users/marcmmw/eng

   2. Understanding the script

     You can check out my scheme code in the same directory mentioned above. 
   If you are interested in helping me out, please leave me an e-mail here at
   sdf.lonestar.org (I am user marcmmw).

   3. Room for improvement

     Here is a list of some additional functionality options. It is important
    to remember that we are not looking for loads of features.  We want code 
   that makes our lives easier. I didn't include a system to create numbered 
   lists, for example, because it is easier to write the list directly in pre-
   formatted text.

     New functions:

    
     * Textboxes and figures.

     It  would  also  be  nice  to have whitespace distributed more evenly in 
   paragraphs  (instead  of  having  more  whitespace in the left half of the 
   paragraph).

     [See endnote number 2]

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   Endnotes


     [1] This is an example of an endnote, which is inserted in the endnotes 
   section.

     [2] Another endnote (just testing).