[gopher] Question

[Kevin Veroneau]

I agree that these directory listings don't officially have a standardization.  However, most such directory views I do come across are hosted on Apache, making that sort of a defacto standard in my books.  The difference here between say FTP/Gopher is that not all servers offer a directory view and the server still prefers to give the client index.html if it exists.

With that said, using an HTML parser and a server that does offer directory views, it'd be rather trivial to parse all the A elements to say render a Gopher menu.

Gopher is much more structured than either HTTP or FTP when it comes to how directories are fed to the client, and there's actually a standard and RFC involved.

I'd be interested in making a gopher HTTP gateway/proxy to show how HTTP can be fully rendered in Gopherspace.  I'd do a Debian mirror, as they provide directory views over HTTP.

On February 11, 2015 3:02:59 PM MST, Kim Holviala <kim at holviala.com> wrote:
>No, you are wrong, HTTP does not provide you with a standardized
>directory view. FTP and Gopher both provide ANY client a directory tree
>with files that is simple to browse (although it can be argued whether
>FTP has any actual standard for directory structures). HTTP has nothing
>like this - it will never provide you a list of files, just HTML pages
>(which may or may not look like a directory listing).
>
>Of course WebDAV changes all that providing proper dir/file structure
>over HTTP in a way which is better than either FTP or Gopher. But no
>one ever exposes WebDAV to all clients, even anonymous.
>
>
>- Kim
>
>
>> On 11 Feb 2015, at 23:56, Kevin Veroneau <kevin at veroneau.net> wrote:
>> 
>> I'm sorry Kim but that's not a good explanation to someone who knows
>HTTP server. These days most HTTP servers including Apache provide
>directory views.
>> 
>> Here is my personal distinction and why I like using Gopher. Gopher
>is more similar to FTP than it is to HTTP. Gopher is like a power
>user's FTP server. Where FTP falls flat, gopher shines. FTP cannot
>perform database queries, remote searches, run server-side code, or
>accept input from the user. Sure a custom built FTP server could be
>made to query a database, but it cannot request a string of text from
>the user.
>> 
>> Gopher is also vastly more lightweight than the likes of HTTP. Gopher
>doesn't use headers or content types. Gopher is overall a much simpler
>protocol to implement and can be used to say fetch lightweight status
>reports and logs from a server. I use Gopher to view server logs
>without needing to configure and run either a full fledged HTTP or FTP
>server. And since there are clients on mobile, it's a cinch to read
>this info.
>> 
>> To me, Gopher still has it's place and I feel it's way under used for
>what it can do in this day and age.
>> 
>> On February 11, 2015 2:32:24 PM MST, Kim Holviala <kim at holviala.com>
>wrote:
>>  On 11 Feb 2015, at 17:29, NN NN <aepedia at yandex.ru> wrote:
>>  
>>  For what reasons is Gopher needed if there are FTP and HTTP?
>> 
>> 
>> FTP provides directories but no hyperlinks. HTTP provides hyperlinks
>but no directories. Gopher provides both hyperlinks and directories
>combining both FTP and HTTP. Of course no one uses Gopher, but that’s
>another story :-) 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> - Kim
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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