Internet 101: Gopher it!
From FutureNet : .net 1, Dec '94 - Easy Internet Written by Davey Winder
Sorry about the headline, but I couldn't resist it. Burrowing your way through the vast maze of resources available on the Internet can seem a daunting task, and indeed it would be if it weren't for the Internet gopher. A gopher is a small burrowing rodent from North and Central America, but it also happens to be the punning name of a wonderful Internet tool developed by the University of Minnesota. Gophers provide a menu-driven `searching through the Internet' system - or, to be more precise, the gopher client you use gives you the friendly, easy-to-use menu-driven system, while the gopher servers that these connect to do all the donkey work and actually find the resources you ask for.Before we go any further, perhaps it's time we took a look at the client/server relationship and why it's important to any Internet user. (Don't worry, we'll get back to cuddly little gophers in a minute.)
I could get very technical here, but you probably wouldn't like it, so instead I'll stick to the simplest possible explanation. Basically, the server is the computer that performs a task for another computer, while the client is the computer that requests the task. A client doesn't give two hoots how the server comes up with the goods, just so long as it does. (An example would be when you're collecting a file. The client asks the server for a file which the server doesn't have, but knows how to get. It then kicks off a series of requests and connections to other computers and obtains the file, which it subsequently delivers to the client. The client gets what it asks for and everyone is happy.)
Veronica has proved so useful, she's spawned a relation - Jughead - which is a lot faster.So why is this so important to you, the Internet user? Simple - it means you get to use nice and friendly client programs, which enable you to perform pretty complicated actions in just a mouse press or two, and saves you having to worry about how complex it is for the server to actually perform said action. It's through features like this that the Internet is becoming increasingly more user-friendly.
Anyway, back to gophers. What you see here is a nice friendly menu (see above) which enables you to select the info you want. Most service providers have gopher clients up and running - if yours doesn't, you can always Telnet to one (although this can be a slow and painful process, believe me). One problem with gophers is that because there are so many of them, actually searching through them all to find the information you want can become a fairly time-consuming task. Quite a few people have come up with a solution - a sort of gopher for gophers. She's called Veronica and she works by searching all the gopher servers for menu items that contain a keyword or subject matter you're interested in. Once the search is complete, Veronica returns with a gopher menu made up of gopher menu entries! You then just select the menu item of interest and get connected to the appropriate gopher.
Veronica has proved so useful she's spawned a relation, called Jughead. This is a new one to the Internet gopher scene, but useful all the same. (Veronica and Jughead are both characters in the American '50s-style Archie comic books.) Jughead performs much the same function as Veronica, but the difference is that a Jughead search is restricted to the local server, rather than every server on the planet. It's a lot faster and also damn useful in locating only the relevant local resources. Because Jughead is new, you may find some gophers without an entry on their menus, but don't worry - it's only a matter of time.
WAIS
Telnet
