..and here it is (all text)
Why is this important at all? I donno, I was watching Futurama and the date came up for "When was the internet about taking personal data and selling it"... Aparently, it was August 6th, 1991...The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow links to be made to any
information anywhere. The address format includes an access method
(=namespace), and for most name spaces a hostname and some sort of path.
We have a prototype hypertext editor for the NeXT, and a browser for line mode
terminals which runs on almost anything. These can access files either locally,
NFS mounted, or via anonymous FTP. They can also go out using a simple protocol
(HTTP) to a server which interprets some other data and returns equivalent
hypertext files. For example, we have a server running on our mainframe
(http://cernvm.cern.ch/FIND in WWW syntax) which makes all the CERN computer
center documentation available. The HTTP protocol allows for a keyword search
on an index, which generates a list of matching documents as annother virtual
hypertext document.
If you're interested in using the code, mail me. It's very prototype, but
available by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch. It's copyright CERN but free
distribution and use is not normally a problem.
The NeXTstep editor can also browse news. If you are using it to read this,
then click on this: <http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html> to find
out more about the project. We haven't put the news access into the line mode
browser yet.
We also have code for a hypertext server. You can use this to make files
available (like anonymous FTP but faster because it only uses one connection).
You can also hack it to take a hypertext address and generate a virtual
hypertext document from any other data you have - database, live data etc. It's
just a question of generating plain text or SGML (ugh! but standard) mark-up on
the fly. The browsers then parse it on the fly.
The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data,
news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the web to other
areas, and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome! I'll
post a short summary as a separate article.
On a side note, I had a pubilc webpage up for people to visit LONG BEFORE 1991... It was in 1983-5, a full 8 years before this! Thanks to a Commodore 64c, a 5 1/4" FDD and a 300 baud pocket modem with good ol' phone lines. You might laugh at it but it was called "The Emerald Sword" and was a RPG board with 1500 members! 300 baud was a little slow but it worked fine for ASCII charaters and was in colour as well! haha. Goes to show the internet started way before 1991 as claimed. BTW, I didn't start the internet...but I would say I was one of the early webmasters of it. haha
Mike
