[gopher] Welcome to caps!

[Cameron Kaiser]

Well, theory is no good without implementation, so now here is the test
implementation for my caps idea. For those not following the thread, this
is a way for a server to expose capabilities without using Gopher+, hence
"caps". The concept is simple, a text file called caps.txt such that a
fetch for the selector

	caps.txt

will come up with it. For example, see

	gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/0/caps.txt

The reason this was done was initially so that a server could tell a client
how to parse selectors in its filesystem (the scheme here can handle POSIX
file paths, FAT/NTFS and Mac HFS, which should cover the vast majority of
just about anything -- I don't think a simple metacharacter search will 
parse VMS or Files-11 paths, so I didn't even try here). However, it is a
wide-open interface: you can define arbitrary keys and if a client wants to
do something with that key, it can (see the vanity keys at the end).

So, here's the payoff:

	http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/0/gopher/clients/mac/maclynx-readme.txt

Notice that in this (long) URL, the Floodgap Public Gopher Proxy is now
parsing the caps file (and caching it as directed), and using it to cut up
the selector. Now you know exactly where you are in the hierarchy, which
serves to further emphasize Gopher's usefulness as a hierarchical access
system.

It also scales:

	http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/0/archive/jagubox-gsfc-nasa-gov-aux/Apple.fixes/supported/3.1/aws-tuneup-2.0/README

Rob Sayers also has a caps on robsayers.com,

	http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://gopher.robsayers.com:70/0/model100/m100hg.txt

and Jacob Dahl Pind has one on telefisk:

	http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://telefisk.org:70/0/coherent/updates/00INDEX

I'm going to ask smj about one on sdf. Opinions? Any problems with this
initial implementation?

The idea next is to extend this support to OverbiteFF using an XUL overlay.

-- 
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
  Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Put down your guns, it's Weasel Stomping Day! ------------------------------