Title: Gopher, old-school web, simplicity
Date: Jan 17, 2019
I've said it many times before, but I've become so tired of just how insanely
complex the web has become. It's to the point that some people will tell
newcomers that in order to make your own website, you have to download:
1) node.js on your local machine
2) one of the multitude of node package managers
3) a building tool
4) a framework
5) a massive amount of code which the framework relies upon
6) a bloated text editor running in Electron (VSCode, Atom)
I have legit seen this process play out in front of my eyes, and as someone who
started in web design during the late 90s, it's utterly embarrassing to watch
such bullcrap take place. None of that is a requirement, since there are other
web servers out there (Apache, nginx, lighttpd), other scripting languages out
there (PHP, Python), other lighter native editors out there (vim, emacs,
BBEdit, TextEdit, Notepad, Notepad++, Notepad3)... The list just goes on.
And this mess about downloading frameworks and building tools and package
managers as a requirement just scares off most newcomers. All you really need
are:
1) a hosting provider
2) your text editor of choice[1]
3) some references for HTML, CSS, and maybe a chosen scripting language[2]
4) some time to put it together
5) an FTP client of your choice for uploading things[3]
Or... You know, something like Squarespace or Dreamwidth that does most of this
for you, and allows you to just make and post content in as simple a manner as
possible.
This is part of why I also like gopher. You only need:
1) a hosting provider (or a raspberry pi or something to host it yourself)
2) your gopher server of choice (bucktooth, pygopherd,etc...)
3) a text editor
4) some time to make content
5) an FTP client for uploading things (optional)
It's simple, and it just works. Hell, I can do all of this on my iMac or
MacBook running MacOS 10.6 (from 2009). I could even do it running an old
Macintosh Perfoma running System 7 or something.[4] It's not tied to any
particular OS or hardware, and I'll never understand why some people think
it should be.
Right now, I'm running this gopher server on a Raspberry Pi 0 W at home. I do
all my editing on my iMac or MacBook, and just upload it over the network when
needed. That's it
That's the sort of simplicity I appreciate. I wish more people would appreciate
it as well.
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[1]:
https://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html
[2]:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/
[3]:
https://cyberduck.io/
[4]: Yes, I'm a Mac user, and I could totally use something like System 7 or
MacOS 9 as a daily driver if needed.
