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Gopher Protocol (2020)

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Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#11

Post by ploum »

ikari_pl wrote: post #2

I always liked Gopher for its simplicity and therefore efficiency. Check out also Gemini with Deedum, the gemini browser for Android too :) more reading: https://thedorkweb.substack.com/p/gopher-gemini-and-the-smol...

Let me plug my own TUI web/gopher/gemini browser : https://sr.ht/~lioploum/offpunk/

Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#12

Post by yrro »

jolmg wrote: post #4
qwerty456127 wrote: post #3

Does it has functions for sending data, i.e. submitting forms? I'm curious if gopher could be a sufficient lightweight web protocol for all normal real life tasks including internet banking and shopping.

No. The protocol seems very simple: connect, provide a document reference, server responds with the document, and the connection is closed. Document may contain references to other documents. Imagine HTTP with only GET, no headers, no request bodies. RFC 1436 explicitly says: > No state is retained by the server.

Huh. The original HTTP (later renamed HTTP/0.9 in order to differentiate it from HTTP/1.0) is really quite similar: it appears to basically be gopher with an additional method (always GET) prepended to the document reference; no request headers, no response status code nor response headers.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_...

Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#13

Post by reaperducer »

cpsns wrote: post #9

I love Gopher, it's a nice, extremely light protocol with none of the added BS I hate about the web. The only people who use it these days are a particular type of person, the type that I generally enjoy reading the thoughts and work of. I actually setup a new service on Gopher recently, a lightweight Google News reader[1] and it works better than I could have really hoped. [1] http://muezza.ca/projects/gophernews/

The only people who use it these days are a particular type of person, the type that I generally enjoy reading the thoughts and work of.

Then you might enjoy reading your own thoughts, since it's possible to read HN via gopher.

Sorry I don't have the address right now. It's bookmarked on my TRS-80.

Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#14

Post by bovermyer »

I run a site on Gemini, which is a modern sibling of Gopher.

I haven't really put the effort into it necessary to generate a "following," which in the Gemini world really seems to just mean people emailing each other. That hits a nostalgia vibe for me.

Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#15

Post by cpsns »

reaperducer wrote: post #13
cpsns wrote: post #9

I love Gopher, it's a nice, extremely light protocol with none of the added BS I hate about the web. The only people who use it these days are a particular type of person, the type that I generally enjoy reading the thoughts and work of. I actually setup a new service on Gopher recently, a lightweight Google News reader[1] and it works better than I could have really hoped. [1] http://muezza.ca/projects/gophernews/

The only people who use it these days are a particular type of person, the type that I generally enjoy reading the thoughts and work of. Then you might enjoy reading your own thoughts, since it's possible to read HN via gopher. Sorry I don't have the address right now. It's bookmarked on my TRS-80.

It's gopher://hngopher.com:70/ for anyone reading this that wants to check it out.

Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#16

Post by billyhoffman »

bovermyer wrote: post #14

I run a site on Gemini, which is a modern sibling of Gopher. I haven't really put the effort into it necessary to generate a "following," which in the Gemini world really seems to just mean people emailing each other. That hits a nostalgia vibe for me.

Gemini is a lot of fun. It feels like the mid-90's web. As a reader, I stumble upon interesting content all the time. As a developer and hacker, it's neat to play with. Currently its about 500,000 pages, so crawling and indexing it is easy. There is no way to commercialize it, so people are just experimenting and having fun. One person hooked up some interactive text games from Infocom like Zork.

A few things I've built:

- Kennedy - a search engine

- Gemipedia - A wikipedia proxy

- A clone of Worlde, a geography game

- A weather lookup service

I find the limits of it refreshing.

gemini://gemi.dev/

Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#17

Post by blippage »

bovermyer wrote: post #14

I run a site on Gemini, which is a modern sibling of Gopher. I haven't really put the effort into it necessary to generate a "following," which in the Gemini world really seems to just mean people emailing each other. That hits a nostalgia vibe for me.

I like Gemini, and I am increasing my use of it. Its killer feature is that it's great at writing technical documentation, in my view. Gopher is more finicky, so Gemini is the way to go.

If I'm permitted a little plug: gemini://tozip.chickenkiller.com/ . I also run a gemini to gopher bridge, so the site can be assessed via the url gopher://tozip.chickenkiller.com/ Its works via a perl script I knocked together using inetd on FreeBSD. So if you like gemtext, but can't be bothered with the hassle of setting up security keys, then the bridge may be the way to go.

One idea for a cool project for Gemini that no-one seems to have done is a Twitter clone. What's interesting about it is that Gemini has the concept of an identity baked in, so you wouldn't need to register for an account to start posting.

Re: Gopher Protocol (2020)

#19

Post by bborud »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #3

Does it has functions for sending data, i.e. submitting forms? I'm curious if gopher could be a sufficient lightweight web protocol for all normal real life tasks including internet banking and shopping.

You could send search requests. The reason I remember this is because I was writing a Gopher server which had a built-in search engine.

I say "I was building" rather than "built" because two things happened: someone showed me a graphical web browser that actually was usable, and whomever owned Gopher wanted to charge money for using v2 of the protocol (I think?). So I ditched all the gopher code I had written and made an HTTP-server instead.

update: I think it was Goper+, not Gopher v2 which was the new version

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