Comment by fsckboy
4 days ago
declaring a website to be "first" introduces a definitional problem.
to put it in terms of a simple example, you need several HTML pages before one of them can link to another, but so far that's just hypertext. then you need pages spread out across plural sites to be able to create a web.
I found it via gopher and wais - I can't remember which one did what, it was a fair few years ago.
I telnetted from my PC to a VAX, then to a X.25 PAD, then onto a Janet system, then to somewhere in the US and then to CERN. Eventually I'd get a menu with a link to the www. I'd then navigate the www with different keystrokes.
www was/is free form links to stuff instead of hierarchical menus. It was an evolution not a revolution and there is no need to invoke "chicken or egg".
so you're saying that gopher was the web. i've heard it said before. if you are scared to discuss a chicken and egg problem, you are exactly who should hear it.
Don't be daft. gopher and wais are just protocols and via telnet you got a menuing system in what we call a TUI nowadays.
I'm not sure which part of the chicken you are trying to push the eggs back into but please don't.