About Gopher
Gopher is a software ecosystem (a protocol, software that uses it,
people that write and use the software, etc.) comparable in some
respects to the Web, except much simpler. It was originally developed
at the Univeristy of Minnesota
It's about the same age as the World Wide Web, and was very popular in
its heyday (more popular than the Web!). The Web eventually won out,
but Gopher survived, and is currently experiencing a small resurgence
among enthusiasts.
Gopher provides directories of content. These often coincide with
the directories (AKA folders) of a host operating system, but can
include links to gopher resources lying elsewhere. There is a flag
indicating what kind of resource there is.
And that's it. There is no formatting or markup language to speak of,
beyond listing gopher directories. Even 'informational text'
(allowing a mix of text and links in the same file) came later,
originally gopher content was divided sharply between directories and
content. Some gopher clients also display titles in a different font,
but this is non-standard.
The content tends to be in plain text, which is normally displayed
directly in the client. Other resources include
searches, downloadable files, images (gopher clients don't typically
display these inline), and telnet.
More resources:
TEXT Floodgap's What is Gopher?
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