Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:00:51 +0100
From: Pieter Verberne <pieterverberne@xs4all.nl>
To: gopher@complete.org
Subject: [gopher] Troff & ASCII for hypertext?
Message-ID: <20080117200051.GA46268@xs4all.nl>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Sender: gopher-bounce@complete.org
Errors-to: gopher-bounce@complete.org
Precedence: bulk
Reply-to: gopher@complete.org

Hi all,

I want to use nroff and ASCII as hypertext. Does anyone has done
this before? It is just that I don't like HTML. It just feels bad.
I think it would be really usefull to introduce a few new file
formats.

I think computers can't recognize all URL's in plain text without
making mistakes. (do they?) So we need a very simple file format
wich is just basicly 'plain text' but does a few additions. These
are the possibility to declaring something as a URL. It would be
something like these:

URL('gopher://bla.host.com:2323/')
MAILTO('bla@host.com')

Or possibly 'nroff-style'

.lnk	# link
gopher://bla.host.com:2323/
.mlt	# mailto
bla@host.com

We could also to something like this for images: (altough I'm not
sure this is a good idea)

IMAGE('image.png')

(or nroff style)

Also, I would like to have hyperlinks in nroff files.

The only big problem now, is that no gopher (or http) client does
understand my own thought file formats. And I don't know how to
code, so no, I can't make the difference:-) But I'm just discussing
my idea's. I know this is not going to happen.

Another thing: has anyone ever thought about a (hypertext) document
distribution system via 9P. (from Plan 9) I have never used Plan
9/ 9P but I read something about it and I think it just could be
suitable for such purpose. But we should have some menu like gopher
has.

(Just something about me versus the WWW, (also thought-sharing)
I think I don't like the WWW mosty because it doesn't distinguish
contents from navigation. I really hate navigating with the mouse.
Also, websites are often build as a work of art. Like a painting..
no, more like grafitty. It is just a mess. There is just no awareness
of typography.)

Where is a up to date archive of this list?

Pieter Verberne