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GeneralRe: Email that isn't sent? Pin
jschell14-Nov-23 7:28
jschell14-Nov-23 7:28 
GeneralIn the beginning: Pin
theoldfool13-Nov-23 4:21
professionaltheoldfool13-Nov-23 4:21 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Richard MacCutchan13-Nov-23 4:43
mveRichard MacCutchan13-Nov-23 4:43 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
theoldfool13-Nov-23 5:04
professionaltheoldfool13-Nov-23 5:04 
JokeRe: In the beginning: Pin
Member 1262027414-Nov-23 3:41
Member 1262027414-Nov-23 3:41 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Richard MacCutchan14-Nov-23 5:08
mveRichard MacCutchan14-Nov-23 5:08 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
MSBassSinger13-Nov-23 5:46
professionalMSBassSinger13-Nov-23 5:46 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
trønderen13-Nov-23 6:06
trønderen13-Nov-23 6:06 
I was teaching computer networking at a tech. college when WWW appeared. Gopher had been in the curriculum for a few years (and the students actually found a lot of useful information on various Gopher sites). We went into all sorts of protocol details - layout of protocol units, exchange procedures etc.

So I presented WWW as an augmented Gopher protocol, and not even very much augmented. The big thing was a new type of content (Gopher already had a few), which required a more fancy presentation. Gopher had facilities for linking from one page to another, but with the 'old' content types, a page would either have a list of annotated links, or informative text. An HTML page could intermix links and information; we did not view it as any earth shaking generalization (which it turned out to be!).

Gopher also allowed user data to be supplied with the request. HTTP POST defined a standard format for this information, which was good thing, making it a lot more useful. Yet we saw it as not that much more than a far more complete specification of the Gopher selector. At the technical level, the differences between Gopher and HTTP 1.0 are surprisingly small - so small that HTTP could, at the functional level, be seen as a Gopher update (although a major one).

If Gopher has been extended with a new 'HTML' page type, alongside with plain text pages, lists of links pages, file transfer, information search functions, ... and the selector format standardized to something like what POST uses, the Gopher protocol could have provided something very WWW-like.

In other words: We were not that greatly impressed by WWW when it arrived to replace Gopher.

We underestimated the effect of the (technically speaking) minor extensions, by orders of magnitude! But for a long time (and I would say that it partially holds even today), the WWW revolution was not on the technical side, but how it is used.

If you read between the lines - to help you a bit, I will drag it up on the the line: The success of HTTP/HTML has a lot to do with promotion. Marketing. CERN was a lot better than U of Minn in their marketing of HTTP/HTML. If they had made it as an extension of Gopher, rather than creating a new protocol, they could probably have succeeded, too. Presenting sa new name sometimes is essential in marketing. (Unless you have invested a lot in the old name - CERN had not. Look at e.g. ethernet or USB - they each cover several more or less completely different protocols, but the standard developers have succeeded in hiding the differences.)
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
jschell13-Nov-23 6:50
jschell13-Nov-23 6:50 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
englebart13-Nov-23 7:34
professionalenglebart13-Nov-23 7:34 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Mike Hankey13-Nov-23 6:15
mveMike Hankey13-Nov-23 6:15 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
bryanren14-Nov-23 10:00
bryanren14-Nov-23 10:00 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Christian Graus13-Nov-23 11:58
protectorChristian Graus13-Nov-23 11:58 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Eddy Vluggen13-Nov-23 12:07
professionalEddy Vluggen13-Nov-23 12:07 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Gerry Schmitz13-Nov-23 12:41
mveGerry Schmitz13-Nov-23 12:41 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Roger Wright13-Nov-23 15:53
professionalRoger Wright13-Nov-23 15:53 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
trønderen13-Nov-23 16:28
trønderen13-Nov-23 16:28 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Gary Wheeler14-Nov-23 1:40
Gary Wheeler14-Nov-23 1:40 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Gary Wheeler14-Nov-23 1:44
Gary Wheeler14-Nov-23 1:44 
GeneralRe: In the beginning: Pin
Mike Hankey14-Nov-23 10:07
mveMike Hankey14-Nov-23 10:07 
GeneralBuilding a better RTS AI. Starting from the end [updated] Pin
Calin Negru13-Nov-23 4:05
Calin Negru13-Nov-23 4:05 
GeneralRe: Building a better RTS AI. Starting from the end Pin
Maximilien13-Nov-23 4:16
Maximilien13-Nov-23 4:16 
GeneralRe: Building a better RTS AI. Starting from the end Pin
Calin Negru13-Nov-23 4:52
Calin Negru13-Nov-23 4:52 
GeneralRe: Building a better RTS AI. Starting from the end Pin
Gerry Schmitz13-Nov-23 7:29
mveGerry Schmitz13-Nov-23 7:29 
GeneralRe: Building a better RTS AI. Starting from the end Pin
Calin Negru13-Nov-23 8:53
Calin Negru13-Nov-23 8:53 

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