Re: Gemini link syntax update
       2019-07-04 10pm
       
       Solderpunk recently phlogged about current thoughts on the Gemini
       protocol's potential link syntax:
       
 (TXT) Quick update on link syntax
       
       I was a big initial supporter of the "magic string" syntax (and
       in particular => as the specific magic string... it looks like an
       arrow and as such looks like what it does: points somwhere). I
       remain a big supporter of this strategy.
       
       I do not have any concern over using what solderpunk/visiblink
       refered to as angle brackets (but I assume to mean greater than
       or less than). I feel like people are VERY used to html. Heck,
       my Mom has copied in some basic html for stuff online and she
       doesn't even understand what I mean when I ask her "well, what
       folder did you save the photos in?". As such, I remain steadfast
       that => seems solid. I also like -> fine. I think either of 
       those are fairly unlikely to come up in an actual url. As a
       result, the need for escaping may be there, but is mostly 
       unlikely in practice.
       
       Some very good questions have been brought up though:
       
       1. If we use => should there be a space after it before the
          text/link? If so, is it mandatory? If so, what exactly
          constitutes a space?
       
          I am in favor of making the space optional and trimming
          any whitespace characters (other than newline which I
          think would result in a broken link) from the beginning
          and ending of the remaining string. 
       
          line = "=> \t gemini://test.com A link"
          line = line[2:].trimWhitespace()
       
          My basic thoughts in code that does not belong to a
          particualr language (but resembles python or go).
       
          At that point the string could be split to get a
          link and its text.
       
       2. URL first or link text first?
       
          I am kind of split on this one. I think my preference
          is to do url first. For the simple reason that it will
          be just slightly easier to parse the line in any
          language that lacks a last index of function.
       
          I would definitely not categorize my opinion on that
          as strong. I am mostly good either way. It is much 
          less of a big deal to me than how question #1 above
          gets sorted out.
       
       3. URL escaping.
       
          The subject of escaping characters in URLs has not been
          brought up, to my knowledge at least. Because there is the
          intention of parsing on a space after, or before...depending on
          the answer to #2, the URL... the url cannot contain any spaces.
       
          Will we be using %20 to denote a space? Will we take on some
          other convention? Are there other characters that will we
          need to represent in an alternate form? 
       
          I do not know the answers to the above, but do think that 
          they should be addressed. I definitely have no trouble
          using spaces and tabs in gopher addresses... Web addresses
          on the other hand are generally URL encoded. If we are going
          to use space as a delimiter for our link lines I absolutely
          think we need to, at the very least, do some kind of 
          encoding of spaces within URLs and both clients and servers
          need tos tandardize on the same encoding. 
       
          The alternative is to parse by space, but allow spaces in
          filenames... which is madness. I also do not think it is
          within the realm of possibility that just asking people not
          to put spaces in filenames is going to happen... if it was
          going to happen it already would have happened everywhere
          else (I maintain it is a terrible idea to put a space in a 
          filename).
       
       Shout out to this phlog for their thoughts on the matter as well:
 (TXT) No one to relate to 'cept the sea
       
       
       Anyway, time to put the munchkin to bed. Have a good night
       gopherspace...