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Alice in Gopher Space
Generally, disk space on any computer system is a state of apparent chaos. Users tend to save files to wherever the computer happens to be connected: letters to the financial committee are stored with sample files in the Word Perfect directory or folder, accompanying spreadsheets end up with Excel or 1-2-3, and the mailing list is in the Approach or FoxPro space. To make matters worse, DOS filenames are limited to 8 characters and a "dot" three-character extension, resulting in cryptic descriptions such as in-gophr.htm, apr0196.wks, or new-memo.doc.

[Note: The paragraph above and the next two paragraphs of content are repeated in the FTP Primer section.]

The MCCSC Learning Network subscribes to Policy and Guidelines 2521 of the Monroe County Community School Corporation. Links contained on these pages to information or other organizations are presented as a service and neither constitute nor imply endorsement or warranty.   © 1998 MCCSC. Comments/Questions: Webmaster. Last update: 23 October 1998.

Even the owner-user of such a filing system is sometimes hard pressed to remember the topic of new-memo.doc, whether in- means in, Indiana, or Internet, and is that April 1, 1996, or April 19th?

Computer directories on large-space servers are often in a similar state. Locating something on a 3.5" floppy is one thing; finding a specific file on an 8 gigabyte server can be maddening, even if the searcher knows and understands the lengthy "path" structure.

To help make information more easily accessible, the University of Minnesota developed Gopher -- either named after the furry school mascot or intended to stand for go-for -- which provided network sites with a method of organizing files into information.

Gopher offers hierarchical menu-driven Internet searches. Gopher sites are an easy way to gather information. They are probably responsible for the first big explosion of Internet users. It was no longer necessary to know UNIX and spend long hours typing cryptic path and file names.

There are tools for searching Gopher space: The Veronica client makes the connection to the Gopher site and reads the menus back to the researcher. And Veronica's client-friend Archie adds file transfer protocol capability, retreiving the file and transfering it back to the researcher's computer. This process is discussed in the FTP Primer section.

The Original Gopher Site is at the University of Minnesota. Try using Gopher with Veronica in the Search Tools section of Searching the Internet..

Road Map has two lessons -- Gopher (Part I) and Gopher (Part II) -- that cover non-Web Gopher access, but much of the information is conceptually useful to Web users.

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