University of Minnesota
Information Access
Reproduced with permission from NeXT Computer, Inc.
A Reference Guide to NeXT in Higher Education, Fall 1992
ยช 1992 NeXT Computer, Inc
Tunneling through the Internet with Gopher
When computer science instructor Dian Lopez arrives at her University of Minnesota office each day, she immediately logs on to her NeXT machine to check the weather forecast, scan the United Press International (UPI) news feed, and read the University of Texas' student newspaper (she likes to keep up with the news in Texas since she'll be finishing her doctoral dissertation at Texas A&M University soon). At other times, she might access computer documentation, library databases, phone books, novels, or the University of Minnesota student newspaper.
Lopez obtains this varied information via Internet Gopher, an information distribution system developed by the Computer and Information Services Department at the University of Minnesota. Gopher combines features of electronic bulletin boards and databases so users can either browse through a hierarchy of information or search for information using full-text indexes.
"Gopher is a great source of news for me," says Lopez. "For example, if I'm going to an out-of-state conference, I can just check the national weather forecasts to find out what clothing to bring. I can also get a list of different computer science seminars I might want to attend. I've even introduced students in my introductory computer science course to electronic publishing through Gopher. We've reviewed subjects, such as character data, using the Alice in Wonderland text available on Gopher."
At the university's Academic Computing Center, Gopher is part of the Microcomputer Helpline that answers questions using the center's large user- support database containing more than 6,000 information items from various hardware and software vendors. Students and faculty can also search 17 university phone directories, two campus newspapers, and national weather forecasts. A full UPI news feed is updated and indexed hourly; and electronic books, from Moby Dick to the CIA World Fact Book, are also available on Gopher.
All this information is stored on multiple servers, connected in a network. In addition to NeXT machines, PC, Macintosh, X-windows, and other Unix computers can access the Gopher system. A client machine connects with a "root" Gopher server that is an entry point into Gopher. At the initial connection, the root server sends back a list of the objects in its top-level directory, such as text files, search engines, or Telnet references. Each object has a user displayable title, a "selector string," a hostname, and a port number associated with it. The client then presents the user with a list of titles and lets the user make a selection. After the user makes a selection, the client contacts the given host at the given port and sends the selector string associated with the object.
Mark McCahill, project leader of the Gopher development team, notes: "Using a NeXT machine as a server is a real win because of Digital Librarian. When you run Gopher on another UNIX box, like a Sun, you need to use a public domain search engine that doesn't have the capability of Digital Librarian. With Digital Librarian, you can use a variety of Boolean search styles; for example, searching for 'salmon or spinach,' 'salmon not spinach,' or 'salmon and spinach' gives you an intuitive means of narrowing or broadening the scope of a search. Digital Librarian really helps narrow the search time. Plus, the speed of the Ethernet network and NeXT's friendly interface make it bearable to grab and ship large documents."
Lopez adds, "It's easy to find information with Gopher on NeXT. The multitasking system makes it fast to go from screen to screen. I can be searching information in Gopher while working in another application at the same time. I'm able to work very efficiently this way. Plus the documentation on the NeXT is excellent. On other platforms, like Sun, I've had a difficult time working with their tools because the documentation is poor."
Gopher is available via anonymous FTP site from boombox@micro.umn.edu in the /pub/gopher directory.
For more information, please contact:
Mark McCahill
Manager, Microcomputer Center and Project Leader, Internet Gopher Team
University of Minnesota
132 Shepherd Labs
100 Union Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
(612) 625-1300
gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu