"Wide load" status code(s)?



On 10-Jun-2020 14:49, Matthew Graybosch wrote:
>
> I agree that it's important to let people using Gemini clients know how
> big a file they're about to download is, and I think the status codes
> for indicating large, huge, and colossal files are a good idea.
>
> This inspired me to manually add file sizes to my link descriptions for
> any file I host on my own capsules as a courtesy to visitors so that
> people can decide for themselves whether they want to open a particular
> link. I've done the same for my capsules' atom feeds so that people
> visiting CAPCOM can also see how large my files are.
>
> I won't presume to recommend that everybody do this, even though it
> would be nice to see my approach become a convention. It takes time to
> go through your directory tree and get file sizes even if you're just
> using shell commands like "ls -hal", but it's a low-tech approach I can
> implement today instead of waiting for client and server developers to
> catch up.
>
Again, the client can do a lot of work for you in this regard. As we all 
know mostly the heavy content is going to be images and things like 
linked mp3, zip, pdf etc.

Generally speaking a client can examine the URL and make an educated 
assumption about the target mime type from the file extension. Such 
links can be decorated or hinted to the user who may or may not decide 
to download them.

In the upcoming relese of GemiNaut I have implemented a simple 
decoration scheme that lets users infer this form the link. This 
decoration is added by the client irrespective of the server.

=> /normal/path Normal gemini link

These can generally can be assumed to be text/gmi or maybe text/*, no 
extra decoration, so displayed like this:

? Normal gemini link

=> /path/to/file.png Link to an image

these can be decorated to hint this to the user, so what you actually 
see is this. The icon hints at the content you will likely get.

? ? Link to an image

Do I want to click on all links to images? Probably not for various 
reasons including bandwidth/performance, and the client helped me make 
that judgement.

At the moment I have an opt in list of the most likely file types that 
might be linked to:

[png gif jpg etc] are images

[mp3 mov pdf zip gz] are decorated as "binary" files

This gives the user a good idea what they will get and helps make a 
choice to click on the link or not

Best wishes

- Luke

---

Previous in thread (11 of 39): 🗣️ Luke Emmet (luke (a) marmaladefoo.com)

Next in thread (13 of 39): 🗣️ solderpunk (solderpunk (a) SDF.ORG)

View entire thread.