007.txt (1973B) [raw]
1 Choosing a Phormat pt. 3 [2021-11-11] 2 ------------------------------------------------------- 3 4 Keeping the title the same to hopefully make it easier 5 to get threads going between posts... 6 7 I wanted to callout an interesting observation I read 8 on the gemini FAQ [1] about text vs menu content 9 serving. The observation is that menus are appealing 10 because they allow hyperlinking (with restrictions, 11 like way outdated content types); however, using a 12 menu that is largely text (`i` info types) is a 13 _really_ inefficient way to serve up content, due 14 to the phony selectors and hostnames that come with 15 it! 16 17 As a practical example, this phlog.txt, including 18 this post, is 7396 bytes, but if it was served as 19 a *.gph file, it becomes 11131 bytes! That's 1.5x 20 the size (~1/3 overhead)! 21 22 This is also discussed a bit on the gemlog of 23 mozz.us [2], which describes the history of `i`. 24 `i` isn't part of the original RFC, and it _seems_ 25 that the original gopher team weren't thrilled to 26 add it. Of course, `i` won out over plain menus 27 because people like to see a little context... but 28 the "pure" gopher way would be to put said context 29 in a file named ABOUT and be done with it! 30 31 I think this is all interesting because people are 32 making some really cool gopher apps out of the 33 menu format (like stagit-gopher, for instance). 34 But maybe this is the wrong way to go about things? 35 in the sense that it would benefit from a more 36 flexible format, like text/gemini... 37 38 Anyways, to go full circle, this revelation about 39 phony selectors reaffirmed my decision to use 40 a plaintext file instead of a gopher menu for this 41 phlog. 42 43 It's an interesting hypothetical though--is 44 Gopher as useful without `i`? Does the lack of 45 MIME types hinder its future adoption? 46 47 It does still serve well as a plaintext delivery 48 system, IMHO. And this phlog is a lot of that :) 49 50 [1]: https://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/faq.gmi 51 [2]: https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/mozz.us/journal/2021-05-27.gmi