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Gopher
What is
Gopher? (in an internet context )
Gopher is a protocol
system, which in advance of the World Wide Web, allowed server
based text files to be hierarchically organised and easily
viewed by end users who accessed the server using Gopher applications
on remote computers. Initially Gopher browsers could only
display text-based files before developments such as HyperGopher,
which were able to handle simple graphic formats though they
were never used on a widespread basis as by this time the
World Wide Web and its Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
were gaining in popularity, and had similar and more extensive
functions.
An example of a
Gopher Window:
The origins
of the Gopher protocol
The Gopher protocol
and original Gopher viewer application were first developed
at the University of Minnesota in the early 1990’s as
part of the drive to make use of the Internet to enable the
simple sharing of documents with people who could be located
in institutions on opposite sides of the country or even the
world, and to have those documents organised so that similar
/ related pages would be easily accessible. The value of the
Gopher system was enhanced by the development of two systems
known as Veronica and Jughead which allowed a user to search
across resources stored in Gopher file hierarchies on a global
basis. As for the naming of the system, the University of
Minnesota sports teams were called the ‘Golden Gophers’
and the sports mascot was thus a large gopher, it has been
said that the protocol was named in honour of the mascot,
and also as in an assistant who's sent to ‘go for’
things.
What happened
to it?
By the mid 1990s
the World Wide Web was growing at a huge rate, and given that
the Web’s Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and its
browser Mosaic could match the functions of the Gopher protocol
and additionally offer added functions such as hyper linking
from within HTML files which brought together related pages
more efficiently than Gopher, there was no longer a compelling
reason to choose the Gopher system. Another advantage the
early Web had over Gopher was the decision of the University
of Minnesota not to definitively rule out the option of exercising
its intellectual property rights over the Gopher protocol,
for any other organisation deciding whether to devote time,
effort, and expense to adopting one of the systems the possibility
of getting locked into a technology that they could then find
themselves being charged for was good reason to prefer the
World Wide Web. Most of the files and databases that had been
available on Gopher were converted into HTTP compatible formats
and made available on the Web, though for the interested it
is still possible to access the Gopher root directory at the
University of Minnesota and a few other places, but the vast
majority of the other Gopher servers on the Net have since
gone offline.
Sample
Gopher Screen
Gopher
characteristics:
Gopher functions
and appears much like a mountable read-only global network
file system (and software, such as gopherfs, is available
that can actually mount a Gopher server as a FUSE resource).
At a minimum, whatever a person can do with data files on
a CD-ROM, they can do on Gopher.
A Gopher system
consists of a series of hierarchical hyperlinkable menus.
The choice of menu items and titles is controlled by the administrator
of the server.
Similar to a file
on a Web server, a file on a Gopher server can be linked to
as a menu item from any other Gopher server. Many servers
take advantage of this inter-server linking to provide a directory
of other servers that the user can access.
Related
technology
The main Gopher search engine is Veronica. Veronica offers
a keyword search of most Gopher server menu titles in the
gopher web. A Veronica search produces a menu of Gopher items,
each of which is a direct pointer to a Gopher data source.
Currently, there is only one Veronica-2 server.
Veronica
veronica, a title
search and retrieval system for use with the Internet Gopher.
Q-1: What
is veronica?
veronica: very
easy rodent-oriented net-wide index of computerized archives.
veronica is a resource-discovery
system providing access to information resources held on most
(99% +) of the world's gopher servers. In addition to native
gopher data, veronica includes references to many resources
provided by other types of information servers, such as WWW
servers, usenet archives, and telnet-accessible information
services.
veronica queries
are keyword-in-title searches. A simple query can be quite
powerful because a large number of information servers are
included in the index.
veronica is accessed
through gopher client software (see Q6). A veronica user submits
a query (via a gopher client) which may contain boolean keyword
expressions as well as special veronica directives. The result
of a veronica search is a gopher menu comprising information
items whose titles contain the specified keywords. The results
menu may be browsed like any other gopher menu.
Q-2: How
can I connect to veronica?
veronica is accessed through any gopher client. The client
may be one of the gopher-specific clients (TurboGopher, Unix
curses gopher, WSGopher, etc.) or a multiprotocol browser
such as Mosaic, NetScape, Chameleon, etc.
Use the client
to find a veronica-access menu on a gopher server menu. Most
gopher servers will have a menu named something like "Search
GopherSpace using veronica".
The client may
have a "starting points" list including veronica.
If your local gopher server does not have a veronica access
menu, point your gopher client to the veronica HOME MENU at:
gopher://veronica.scs.unr.edu:70/11/veronica
An alternative
veronica access menu is at the Mother Gopher:
gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu:70/11/Other
Gopher and Information Servers/Veronica
The veronica home
menu contains several types of items. There is this FAQ, and
a short document "How to Compose veronica Queries".
There is a submenu containing advice for gopher server administrators,
statistics about gopherspace, access to veronica software,
and HTML versions of several documents.
More importantly,
a number of veronica servers will be listed. This home menu
is automatically reconfigured every ten minutes, so only the
currently-active veronica servers will be displayed. You may
choose to submit a search to any of these publicly-accessible
servers, or you can submit your query to the "simplified
veronica search" option which also appears on the menu.
The "simplified" search is a gateway which contacts
all the veronica servers for you, saving you the chore of
trying servers until you find one which accepts your search.
Sometimes all the servers are busy; in that case, resubmit
your search in a minute or so.
URL for more information
on Veronica : http://www.ou.edu/research/electron/internet/veronica.htm
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