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ENQUIRE

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the act of asking, seeEnquiry.For the web based software made by Tactiv Pty Ltd, seeenQuire.

ENQUIRE
InventorTim Berners-Lee
Inception1980[1]
ManufacturerCERN

ENQUIREwas asoftwareproject written in 1980 byTim Berners-LeeatCERN,[2]which was the predecessor to theWorld Wide Web.[2][3][4]It was a simplehypertextprogram[4]that had some of the same ideas as the Web and theSemantic Webbut was different in several important ways.

According to Berners-Lee, the name was inspired by the title of an old how-to book,Enquire Within upon Everything.[2][3][5]

The conditions[edit]

Around 1980, approximately 10,000 people were working at CERN with differenthardware,softwareand individual requirements. Much work was done byemailand file exchange.[4]The scientists needed to keep track of different things[3]and different projects became involved with each other.[2]Berners-Lee started to work for 6 months on 23 June 1980 at CERN while he developed ENQUIRE.[6]The requirements for setting up a new system were compatibility with different networks, disk formats, data formats, and character encoding schemes, which made any attempt to transfer information between dissimilar systems a daunting and generally impractical task.[7]The different hypertext-systems before ENQUIRE were not passing these requirements i.e.MemexandNLS.[7]

Differences to the World Wide Web[edit]

Documentation of the RPC project (concept)

Most of the documentation is available on VMS, with the two
principle manuals being stored in the CERNDOC system.

1) includes: The VAX/NOTES conference VXCERN::RPC
2) includes: Test and Example suite
3) includes: RPC BUG LISTS
4) includes: RPC System: Implementation Guide
Information for maintenance, porting, etc.
5) includes: Suggested Development Strategy for RPC Applications
6) includes: "Notes on RPC", Draft 1, 20 feb 86
7) includes: "Notes on Proposed RPC Development" 18 Feb 86
8) includes: RPC User Manual
How to build and run a distributed system.
9) includes: Draft Specifications and Implementation Notes
10) includes: The RPC HELP facility
11) describes: THE REMOTE PROCEDURE CALL PROJECT in DD/OC

Help Display Select Back Quit Mark Goto_mark Link Add Edit
A screen in an ENQUIRE scheme.[1]

ENQUIRE had pages calledcardsand hyperlinks within the cards. The links had different meanings and about a dozen relationships which were displayed to the creator, things, documents and groups described by the card. The relationship between the links could be seen by everybody explaining what the need of the link was or what happen if acardwas removed.[4]Everybody was allowed to add new cards but they always needed an existing card.[6]

Relationship Inverse Relationship
made was made by
includes is part of
uses is used by
describes is described by

ENQUIRE was closer to a modernwikithan to aweb site:

  • database,though a closed system (all of the data could be taken as a workable whole)[2]
  • bidirectional hyperlinks (inWikipediaandMediaWiki,this is approximated by theWhat links herefeature). This bidirectionality allows ideas, notes, etc. to link to each other without the author being aware of this. In a way, they (or, at least, their relationships) get a life of their own.[4][8]
  • direct editing of the server (like wikis andCMS/blogs)[2]
  • ease of compositing, particularly when it comes tohyperlinking.[2]

The World Wide Web was created to unify the different existing systems at CERN like ENQUIRE, theCERNDOC,VMS Notes and theUSENET.[1]

Why ENQUIRE failed[edit]

Berners-Lee came back to CERN in 1984 and intensively used his own system.[1][4]He realized that most of the time coordinating theprojectwas to keep information up to date.[4]He recognized that a system similar to ENQUIRE was needed, "but accessible to everybody."[4]There was a need that people be able to create cards independently of others and to link to other cards without updating the linked card. This idea is the big difference and the cornerstone to theWorld Wide Web.[4]Berners-Lee didn't make ENQUIRE suitable for other persons to use the system successfully, and in other CERN divisions there were similar situations to the division he was in.[1]Another problem was that external links, for example to existing databases, weren't allowed, and that the system wasn't powerful enough to handle enough connections to the database.[1][2]

Further development stopped because Berners-Lee gave the ENQUIRE disc toRobert Cailliau,who had been working underBrian Carpenterbefore he left CERN. Carpenter suspects that the disc was reused for other purposes since nobody was later available to do further work on ENQUIRE.[9]

Technical[edit]

The application ran onterminalwithplaintext24x80.[4] The first version was able to hyperlink between files.[2] ENQUIRE was written in thePascalprogramming languageand implemented on aNorsk DataNORD-10underSINTRAN III,[2][4][6][8][9]and version 2 was laterportedtoMS-DOSand toVAX/VMS.[2][4]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdefBerners-Lee, Tim(May 1990)."Information Management: A Proposal".World Wide Web Consortium.Retrieved25 August2010.
  2. ^abcdefghijkBerners-Lee, Tim."Frequently asked questions — Start of the web: Influences".World Wide Web Consortium.Retrieved22 July2010.
  3. ^abcJeffery, Simon; Fenn, Chris; Smith, Bobbie; Coumbe, John (23 October 2009)."A people's history of the internet: from Arpanet in 1969 to today"(Flash).The Guardian.London. pp. See 1980.Retrieved7 January2010.
  4. ^abcdefghijklBerners-Lee, Tim(c. 1993)."A Brief History of the Web".World Wide Web Consortium.Retrieved24 August2010.
  5. ^Finkelstein, Prof. Anthony (15 August 2003)."ENQUIRE WITHIN UPON EVERYTHING".ICT Portal.BBC.Archived fromthe originalon 21 June 2003.Retrieved7 January2010.
  6. ^abc"History of the Web".Oxford Brookes University. 2002. Archived fromthe originalon 25 September 2010.Retrieved20 November2010.
  7. ^abBerners-Lee, Tim(August 1996)."The World Wide Web: Past, Present and Future".World Wide Web Consortium.Retrieved25 August2010.
  8. ^abCailliau, Robert(1995)."A Little History of the World Wide Web".World Wide Web Consortium.Retrieved25 July2010.
  9. ^abPalmer, Sean B.;Berners-Lee, Tim(February–March 2001)."Enquire Manual — In HyperText".Retrieved30 August2010.

Further reading[edit]

  • Berners-Lee, Tim(2000).Weaving the web. The original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web.New York: Harper Business.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ENQUIRE&oldid=1210542786"