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24 What are Gopher, WAIS, and WWW? |
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24 What are Gopher, WAIS, and WWW? |
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This article is from the Amiga Networking FAQ, by Richard Norman with numerous contributions by others.
Three kinds of network information servers. Each more powerful than the next, but
with some interconnectivity. Each server requires a client application to allow
the user to access the information. For Example, a Mosaic client can access all
three servers. The main purpose of these client/servers is to help a user
navigate the Internet to find information and files.
Gopher:
Gopher is a menu utility which simply uses FTP for retrieving files from archive
sites. Gopher also uses a search utility called Veronica for aiding users in
finding files in the gopher archive sites. Veronica can do keyword searches
whereas Archie can only search for file names.
WAIS:
WAIS is Wide Area Information Server which provides information lookup services
to libraries and databases on the Internet. A simple WAIS client allows the user
to select databases to search from a list. The user then provides keywords to
search for, and the WAIS client allows the user to view any matches found. This
is cumbersome once the list of databases grows into the thousands. Screenfull
after screenfull of database names scroll by.
As of March 16, 1994 future versions of WAIS server & client library will be
known as ZDist NOT freeWAIS. freeWAIS is based on the older version of the
search and retrieval protocol Z39.50-1988. The newest version of that protocol
Z39.50-1992 is NOT backwards compatible.
Since both versions will be around for awhile, a name change for the server/client
software libraries had to be established. Both freeWAIS and ZDist are maintained
by CNIDR. Kevin Gamiel is the contact.
It should be noted that the Z39.50 protocol is a standard which is NOT published
or maintained by CNIDR, but is publicly available. Z39.50-1992 is the protocol of
choice for many other network based information search and retrieval applications
besides WAIS.
Much more info is available thru Mosaic by searching on CNIDR, WAIS, or Z39.
WWW:
WWW stands for world wide web which is name used to describe the global system of
hypertext and multimedia services. WWW consists of clients called browsers and
servers called web servers. Web servers use http and html to make the WWW
hypertext and multimedia services available to mosaic and AMosaic clients over
the Internet. WAIS support is being added to Mosaic. Mosaic offers WAIS an
effective interface and WAIS offers Mosaic an effective search engine. Other
commercial search engines are also available.
All three of these servers use the TCP/IP protocol, and all have both public
domain and commercial versions of the clients.
Continue to:
amiga, pc, hardware, sotware, networking
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