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Authors: Ben K. <benk@tilde.team>
Date: 2021-05-01
In the last tip I talked about how to use the queue to manage your browsing session. The queue is very powerful and you will want to use it often, but there are is another trick to browsing content.
One thing I forgot to mention in the last post, is that Diohsc also has an "inventory" command, which like all commands can be shortened:
> i
This will show you a little bit about your client's state, especially what you have in your queue should you wish to view it. It will also come in handy for this tip because it also shows you your page history for the current navigation flow, and if you had previously switched contexts it also shows the last page you were on in the other flow. (The one referredd to as "''".)
Now, for example, let's say that I open a list of content that I would like to browse, like calcuode's gmisub feed. I open the first item, which happens to be Techrights, and when I am there, "i" gives me the following output:
<1 gemini://calcuode.com/gmisub-aggregate.gmi
This shows me my "back" history, so if I chose to go back from the current page I return to the aggregator page. This can be made a part of relative navigation from the previous page(s), which means that if you desire, you can do something like this:
> <]
What the "]" does is reference the next link down from the last one you visited from that page. While I'm on Techrights, issuing that command will not just take me back to the aggregator page, but also take me forward to the next link, so I'll end up on next feed item. This can also be reversed like so:
> <[
The difference between "]" and "[" being that the former goes to the next link on the page and the latter goes to the previous link. If instead you use curly braces "}" and "{" it will open the next previously unopened URI. (One that you have never visited before.)
If I had gone one link deeper into Techrights, my inventory would look something like this:
<1 gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/05/01/index.gmi <2 gemini://calcuode.com/gmisub-aggregate.gmi
In which case I could get back to the aggregator with "<<" or by referencing the number "<2". That way you can decide how far back up your history you want to go before proceeding to the next item. At this point I might do something like:
> <<]
or
> <2]
This is very convenient especially when you want to browse content incrementally. Queueing requires you to decide in advance where you want to visit, so in certain situations you might accidentally over-select and end up with items in your queue that you will later have to delete once you decide you don't need to read any more. This could happen if you are using something like Spacewalk, where you can start at the top with the most recently updated page and continue down the feed until you hit one you've read before. Beyond that there would be nothing new for you, so it would have been pointless to queue them.
If you ever get confused about where you stand, don't forget to check your "inventory". In addition to showing your last jump point, your queue, and your back navigation history, it also shows forward navigation history after you've gone back to a page.