GOPHER 2.0 - GRUMBLINGS
Hey, I hear you. :-)
I want to keep part 4/4 "The Client" as short as possible. So
I'm posting this first as an interlude.
Let's get the main disclaimers out of the way:
1. Ignore the title "Gopher 2.0" - I'm just sticking with it to
keep continuity.
2. I completely agree with those who have argued that *Gopher*
should remain exactly as it is if for no other reason than for
old hardware and software to keep working.
3. After the next post, I'm going to switch to non-technical con-
tent for a while. So if this arrived and made you roll your
eyes, just skip it and don't give up on the old Ratfactor just
yet. :-)
Simplicity
=================================================================
I've seen the word "simple" used a lot lately when talking about
Gopher and I want to address that.
I guess there are different kinds of "simple":
Allowing any sort of text encoding is simple... Except you're
just offloading the difficulty of dealing with detecting and dis-
playing different text encodings to the client.
Having directory listings is simple... Except the format is
something only a computer could love.
A lack of hyperlinking in content is simple... Except we're
still gonna use them, so you're just making a human copy-paste a
path.
The inability to re-flow text is simple... Except it means text
content is horrible to read on smaller displays.
True simplicity
=================================================================
I really can't state it better than Solderpunk from "The soul of
Gopher" [0]
"Arguably, a protocol [without a hard line between
menus and documents] has a stronger claim to being
minimalist and simplistic than one with it, all else
being equal. What could be simpler than everything
being the same kind of thing?"
Same thing with text encoding. 7-bit ASCII is already valid
UTF-8. You're probably already serving it. What could be sim-
pler than going ahead, requiring it, and being able to *depend on
that*?
I don't want something complex
=================================================================
I've been a professional Web developer for two decades. I was
building Web applications in the early years of the browser wars.
I've watched the complexity of the Web grow into what it is to-
day. My day job is working on a boring and massive Web-based
business application which actually *needs* all of that complexi-
ty in order to function.
I'm here reading and writing on Gopher because when I come home,
I want something simple! I don't want advertisements and pop-ups
and megabytes of JavaScript and all that crap just to read some
text.
(I also like the community.)
I just like improving things
=================================================================
I want to be able to build clients and servers and experiment and
have those experiments be "first class citizens" on a platform.
I can do that with Gopher. I love that.
I'm not attacking Gopher.
I see room for improvement. I can't help it. That's what I do.
If I see something that's not working perfectly, I want to make
it better.
Unlike the "real world," when you get something right on a com-
puter, it *stays right*!
That's why I program computers in the first place: I love making
the computer do the work!
Sharing ideas
=================================================================
Look, I think we all know the chances of introducing a new proto-
col/markup/client that takes off and becomes popular are about
one in a million.
This is all just "ideas in the shower" and I'm writing them down
because I can't help it.
I'm sharing them because others might be interested.
That's it. :-)
Thanks for reading!
[0]
gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/0/%7esolderpunk/phlog/the-soul-of-gopher.txt