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\=> gemini://auragem.letz.dev/devlog/20240506.gmi
Gemini can handle any document type, not only gemtext. A new doc type needs to innovate. Adding a few markdown niceities to gemtext isn't especially compelling. It would be better to go with an existing solution like CommonMark, for which there are existing parsers out the wazoo.
If you think the Gemini protocol doesn't handle streaming well, create a protocol that does streaming well, and offer it over the Gemini protocol. Titan is a good example of protocols playing nice with one another.
Competing protocols like Spartan and Nex have not done especially well. A new protocol has to have a killer app quality to it.
Good luck.
3 days ago · 👍 edanosborne, aelspire
[1] gemini://auragem.letz.dev/devlog/20240506.gmi
So I could definitely create a different document format, but I don't think it will be accepted or used by the existing community, and I think people will find it restricting not being able to use it as the index page, since only gemtext files can be used as index pages.
Lastly, the reason against Markdown is because it makes several terrible decisions. If I were to pick an existing markup format, it would be AsciiDoc, not Markdown. But AsciiDoc has way too much stuff in it, so instead I took the great ideas from Gemtext and added in AsciiDoc list nesting, and I may explore adding in other things from AsciiDoc. · 5 hours ago
Btw, you should see how many crazy things Markdown/CommonMark does, lol. It is one of the most ambiguous and ill-defined markup languages I've ever seen and used. I found this out recently while trying to deal with syntax highlighting for markdown in the Zed text editor. · 9 hours ago
I got an email recently from someone who was frustrated trying to convert their web blog into gemtext because they couldn't do nested list items or list items inside quotes. Solderpunk had a very hard stance against list nesting, and I bet nobody knows exactly why that is.
But it's not just list nesting. Emphasis and strong are essential for inlined commentaries, like that with the Talmud and Biblical scripture, which I mention in my post from the 9th.
The FAQ talks about three levels of headings being standard, but it conflates level-3 headings *underneath the document title* with level-3 headings in Gemini/HTML/Markdown. The standard is three levels under the doc title. · 9 hours ago
As for the markup niceties, I actually view them as *essentials*. A lot of people left or didn't join Gemini *because* the markup language was so limiting. If you look at the criticisms outside of Gemini, this is the #1 criticism levelled against it! :D
Gemini does support other documents, but gemtext is the default document, which means it gets preferred by users, browsers, and servers. After over 4 years, no Gemini browser supports displaying markdown yet for a reason - there's no incentive, because it's not the default document format. · 9 hours ago
Hello! Thanks for the feedback. I would love to know what decisions you didn't like that I made with Scroll. It's early enough in the development that they could very easily be changed.
As for improving Gemini, one of the strengths and benefits to Gemini is that it was deliberately designed so that it cannot be improved at the protocol side. This is a very good thing, but it also enshrined its minimalism forever, which means we don't get certain things that I consider *essential* for a document-centric (or even "text-centric") protocol, like requesting languages. · 9 hours ago
@m0xee @chirale Right now I think the best thing to do is make Gemini stronger. Gemini is far from perfect, and some of the criticisms leveled against it are true. And everyone is looking for something different. But Gemini is pretty good. We should think about what we can do to make it stronger, rather than flying off in too many directions.
Having said that, the author of the above post has a lot of energy and committment to his chosen task. I don't agree with all his decisions, however with sufficient time determination can do anything. If he can come up with the right combinations of innovations, maybe Scroll will work. · 1 day ago
@chirale Exactly!
Lots of protocols appear as proof of concept, but each of them attempts to solve one particular problem, but none look particularly appealing at the moment. Maybe one day someone can combine all the accumulated ideas and make something new that would make it worth for the community to use, but this day hasn't yet come, at the moment Gemini gets most things done and doesn't feel limiting. · 3 days ago
The more I read it, the more I am convinced that Gemini is the right way. · 3 days ago