2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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gopher
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. [obs.] A type of Internet service first floated around 1991 and
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obsolesced around 1995 by the World Wide Web. Gopher presents a menuing
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interface to a tree or graph of links; the links can be to documents,
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runnable programs, or other gopher menus arbitrarily far across the net.
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Some claim that the gopher software, which was originally developed at the
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University of Minnesota, was named after the Minnesota Gophers (a sports
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team). Others claim the word derives from American slang gofer (from go for
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, dialectal go fer ), one whose job is to run and fetch things. Finally,
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observe that gophers dig long tunnels, and the idea of tunneling through the
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net to find information was a defining metaphor for the developers. Probably
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all three things were true, but with the first two coming first and the
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gopher-tunnel metaphor serendipitously adding flavor and impetus to the
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project as it developed out of its concept stage.
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