Information - Graveyard - Internet Tools Summary
Obsolete or old tools no longer used; these tools were introduced and used, for the most part, extensively during their heyday (except WAIS which was never used extensively); now, information about them is valuable for historical reasons; many of these tools introduced functionality that is used today in other software
- Archie: ArchiePlex; Archie was used to search for information stored on FTP servers and is now no longer in operation; this Web page is for historical interest only
- Finger: Web form to try the finger command; unlikely to work, as most Internet hosts refuse finger requests; historical interest
- Finger RFC: The Finger User Information Protocol; a simple protocol which provides an interface to a remote user information program; finger is now rarely used for security reasons
- Gopher RFC: The Internet Gopher Protocol; a distributed document search and retrieval protocol; describes this protocol used for presenting Internet information which was developed at the University of Minnesota just as the World Wide Web was being widely introduced; subsequent development of the Web and its browsers made Gopher obsolete, although for most of the rest of the 20th century, Web browsers would display information presenting from gopher servers; now, some Web browsers don't even support the gopher protocol; Request for Comments 1436, F. Anklesaria, M. McCahill, P. Lindner, D. Johnson, D. Torrey, B. Alberti, University of Minnesota, March 1993
- Veronica: Definition; Veronica was used to search for information stored on gopher servers; as gopher died, so did Veronica; name derives from comic book character who was a friend of Archie, reflecting Veronica's similar purpose with regard to Gopher as Archie was to FTP; definition with hypertext links from Free Online Dictionary of Computing
- WAIS RFC: WAIS over Z39.50-1988; description of Wide Area Information Servers, a system for searching, browsing, and presenting information which was introduced with just as the World Wide Web grew in popularity with its easy-to-use graphical interface; no known operational WAIS servers in existence well before the 20th century's end; Request for Comments 1625, M. St. Pierre, J. Fullton, K. Gamiel, J. Goldman, B. Kahle, J. Kunze, H. Morris, F. Schiettecatte, June 1994
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