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There's Gopher, Gemini, a myriad of static site generators that render markdown... I like the idea of my browser rendering markdown. But it's not going to solv

There's Gopher, Gemini, a myriad of static site generators that render markdown... I like the idea of my browser rendering markdown. But it's not going to solve the problem, as long as the same client application that renders documents can also render web applications, people looking to bait you with a document into running software on your machine will just publish web applications with some text inside of interest to you. What's needed is separate client software for running web applications and rendering documents, and a different protocol for each, where we fucked up was using http for everything.

zzo38computer 4y ago
While I believe you, and that the currently state is too messy, nevertheless it is possible for some implementations to be more limited or to have options for the user to disable some features if desired. It is true, there are other protocols and other file formats they are good for different purposes, and you should not try to use one for everything. (In my opinion, this is true of Unicode as well; it is messy and doesn't work well to use Unicode for everything, either, nor HTML or HTTPS for everything, or cell phones for everything, or the government for everything, etc.) It would also be possible to serve text/gemini files with HTTP too, and I also have modified my browser to be able to display them (also local files too), this is not common.
nonrandomstring 4y ago
A good summary. People forget what the M in HTML stood for. The slow drift of Hypertext from nice separation of document markup and presentation to "web applications" and browsers that are mini operating systems makes those old jokes about Emacs pale in comparison. The modern bloat-ware browser is a calamity of code, most of which I have no use for and no trust in. So I use a text based browser without JavaScript - and I love it! If I want to run your code on my machine I'll install a proper application that has at least been through some basic code signing, packaging and secure distribution channels. Gemini seems like one of the few hopes for breaking away from the madness of "Web" and restoring some sort of sane, plain document publishing for ordinary people to read and share information.

zzo38computer 4y ago

While I believe you, and that the currently state is too messy, nevertheless it is possible for some implementations to be more limited or to have options for the user to disable some features if desired. It is true, there are other protocols and other file formats they are good for different purposes, and you should not try to use one for everything. (In my opinion, this is true of Unicode as well; it is messy and doesn't work well to use Unicode for everything, either, nor HTML or HTTPS for everything, or cell phones for everything, or the government for everything, etc.) It would also be possible to serve text/gemini files with HTTP too, and I also have modified my browser to be able to display them (also local files too), this is not common.

nonrandomstring 4y ago

A good summary. People forget what the M in HTML stood for. The slow drift of Hypertext from nice separation of document markup and presentation to "web applications" and browsers that are mini operating systems makes those old jokes about Emacs pale in comparison. The modern bloat-ware browser is a calamity of code, most of which I have no use for and no trust in. So I use a text based browser without JavaScript - and I love it! If I want to run your code on my machine I'll install a proper application that has at least been through some basic code signing, packaging and secure distribution channels. Gemini seems like one of the few hopes for breaking away from the madness of "Web" and restoring some sort of sane, plain document publishing for ordinary people to read and share information.