An introduction to the Gopher protocol
2011 February 22 @ 16:34
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I first came across the gopher protocol in the fall of 1999, about 3 or 4 
years after first stumbling about the internet (courtesy of my high school), 
and well after the gopher protocol had faded from the public’s mind. But for 
some particular reason, I was favourably disposed towards the protocol, more 
so than I was to http.

Gopherspace was what I imagined the internet, prior to commercialisation, was 
like: a vast sea of text documents, some pictures, perhaps a video, or sound 
clip, or two, and nary an advertisement in sight (excluding those websites 
maintained by corporations, which may or may not qualify as ads). There was 
something elegant about the stark simplicity of gopherspace, and that elegance 
appealed to my spartan nature.

And so it remains, almost ten years later, that gopherspace still holds the 
same appeal for me today, as it did when I first came across it. Granted I 
have yet to setup my own gopher server (a long-standing, but unfulfilled, 
goal), so until then, this page will have to serve as my small contribution to 
the promotion of the gopher protocol.

Ave Goopher://!


A Short & Incomplete History
----------------------------

The gopher protocol began its life at the University of Minnesota way back in 
1991. Developers there were looking for a way of efficiently sharing documents 
amongst academics and researchers using a consistent interface, and 
lo-and-behold they came up with gopher.

Gopher is a network protocol that organises files in hierarchical, text-based 
lists, and uses the following item-types (which include the original 
item-types, the gopher+ item-types, and common but unofficial item-types) to 
identify different files and items that appear in the hierarchy:

    0 – text file (original)
    1 – directory (original)
    2 – CSO phone-book/name server (original)
    3 – error (original)
    4 – Macintosh HQX [BinHexed] file (original)
    5 – PC (DOS) binary (original)
    6 – UNIX unencoded file (original)
    7 – full text index [gopher menu] (original)
    8 – telnet session (original)
    9 – binary file (original)
    + – redundant server (original)
    : – bitmap image (Gopher+)
    ; – movie type (Gopher+)
    < – sound type (Gopher+)
    c – calendar
    e – event
    g – GIF image (original)
    h – HTML file
    i – in-line text that is not an item
    m – BSD format mbox file
    s – sound file
    I – image [other than GIF] (original)
    M – MIME multipart/mixed message
    P – PDF document
    T – tn3270 session (original)


For the next few years, gopher was THE protocol of the internet, and gopher 
servers began to spring up all over the place. By 1995, you couldn’t swing a 
dead cat on the internet without hitting a gopher server. Unfortunately for 
gopher, 1995 also marked the year that http began to overtake it due to the 
ability to integrate text, images, audio, and video, into one page, and the 
lack of a strict hierarchical file organisation structure.

But even http’s technical advantages need not have spelled quite the doom that 
gopher has since suffered. Unfortunately (again) for gopher, the University of 
Minnesota began charging a licencing fee for gopher servers. Thus http’s rapid 
rise to dominance was assured.

Fortunately, the University of Minnesota eventually had a change of heart, 
releasing gopher under the GPL in 2000, and while wide adoption of gopher is 
likely not going to happen (the University of Minnesota has even shut down 
their gopher server), there are still dedicated hobbyists and enthusiasts out 
there, tending the remaining gopher servers, helping to keep an important part 
of electronic history alive.


Origins Of The Name
-------------------

I have seen three theories as to the origin of the gopher name. Any one, or 
combination of, which might be true.

    * It is a play on the words ‘go for’
    * Information is accessed through a serious of menus that are analogous to 
      a gopher warren
    * It was named in honour of the University of Minnesota’s sports teams, 
      which are named the ‘Golden Gophers’