* * * * *

                 Adventures in Formatting II: Gemini Boogaloo

If you are reading this via Gemini [1], then welcome to my blog! Emboldened
by converting HTML (HyperText Markup Language) to text for gopher [2], I
decided to try my hand at converting HTML to the native Gemini text format
[3] (section 5 of the specification), and I'm less than thrilled with the
results and I don't think given the contraints that I could do a better job
than I have.

The format has similarities to Markdown [4] but simpler, and you can't embed
HTML for when Markdown has no syntax to do what you want. I mean, given that
Gemini supports serving up any type of content, I could have just served up
HTML, but well, I have the webserver for that. And I could have just used the
plain text format I use for gopher, but the Gemini text format does allow for
links, and I like my links (even if external links have a half life of about
a year).

Most of the entries will look okay, it's only the occasional entry with
deeply nested HTML that might look wierd.

And yes, the size of the server bloated quite a bit [5] since I reused the
HTML parser, but it's something I'll just have to live with for now.

[1] https://gemini.circumlunar.space/
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2020/07/04.1
[3] https://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/specification.html
[4] https://www.markdownguide.org/
[5] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2020/07/04.2

Email author at [email protected]

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.conman.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.