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@dimkr has been publishing about Guppy, a new smolnet protocol based on UDP.
The Guppy Protocol Specification v0.2
I posted some feedback on the spec based on writing a toy Guppy client and server.
Detailed feedback and suggested changes to the Guppy spec
While not Gemini-specific, the whole experience has taught me alot:
2023-08-08 · 4 weeks ago · 👍 skyjake, norayr, Odintsoff
It is always fun to design new protocols and aim to cover what other protocols might have missed out, although dropping TLS and TCP because of *bloat* is IMHO a bit of a stretch. While TLS 1.3 is arguably simpler than 1.2, TLS and TCP exist for a reason.
Maybe very-low-end microcontrollers (think of 8-bit CPUs with tens of KiB RAM or even less) are the intended target for Guppy, but those might be even unsuitable to run any other Internet protocol out there.
I do like the idea of a protocol for low spec machines where encryption maybe is not an option.
2023-08-09 · 4 weeks ago
@Odintsoff Spartan would meet that bill. its essentially Gemini minus TLS, with some other minor differences.
Complexity has to be somewhere: in the TCP/IP stack, the TLS library or the application. Sometimes, "small" or "simple" is "inefficient" or "slow" (no out-of-order packets, blocking, etc'). This is an exercise in simplification: some would say it goes too far and some would say it makes Gopher, Spartan and the hypothetical Mercury seem less 'simple' because the complexity is still there when TLS is not involved.