(   )
                          (    )
                           (    )
                          (    )
                            )  )
                           (  (                  /\
                            (_)                 /  \  /\
                    ________[_]________      /\/    \/  \
           /\      /\        ______    \    /   /\/\  /\/\
          /  \    //_\       \    /\    \  /\/\/    \/    \
   /\    / /\/\  //___\       \__/  \    \/
  /  \  /\/    \//_____\       \ |[]|     \
 /\/\/\/       //_______\       \|__|      \
/      \      /XXXXXXXXXX\                  \
        \    /_I_II  I__I_\__________________\
               I_I|  I__I_____[]_|_[]_____I
               I_II  I__I_____[]_|_[]_____I
               I II__I  I     XXXXXXX     I
            ~~~~~"   "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sat, 06 Oct 2018

Systemd and Gopher Tags

I'm so fed up with systemd. I tried recently to install gophernicus on my home workstation, Debian 8 (Jesse) - the first release they switched to systemd. Somehow the installer sets up a listening gopher server on IPv6 only, and the systemd interface is completely broken. I don't even want to spend the time to debug it, the CLI interface and config file layout is so awful. I think I'll install Devuan and say goodbye to systemd.

Solderpunk writes about tagged gophers [0][1], and Jynx is right [2][3] in that my gopher phlog engine Slerm [4] supports tags and tag searches natively. I agree a tag-search facility outside of any given client would be very useful, a nice middle ground between full-text and selector searches. Speaking of full-text search, I have a prototype of a full-text search engine I wanted to bolt onto Slerm, but I never finished the integration. Maybe I'll do that one of these days.

posted at: 18:24 | path: / | permalink | debian, devuan, gopher, slerm, systemd, tags

Fri, 16 Jan 2015

Slerm - it's Alive

With the switch to Gophernicus as the SDF gopher server, gopher moles became possible again. I talked about this before [0], but recently found the time to update my old dynamic phlogging software, slerm, so that it worked with Gophernicus. I am testing it and will release another tarball hopefully very soon. Here is the list of features from the original README [1]:

I haven't added any features, just fixed it up to work with Gophernicus as a real CGI script. It is a bit like a gopher version of Blosxom. I know from a recent thread on bboard that some do not care for gopher moles, but I have always loved the simplicity of CGI and think it is a good fit for gopher. I think having the ability for readers to leave simple text comments on a phlog is a nice way to foster the gopher community.

posted at: 07:12 | path: / | permalink | cgi, gopher, gophernicus, moles, phlogging, slerm

Wed, 17 Sep 2014

Time to Re-visit Dynamic Phlogging

For a few years SDF used the Bucktooth gopher server, which works fine but had some security issues that were very hard to fix given that server's design and the difficulty of testing.

In particular, this affected gopher moles (CGI scripts), as SMJ had disabled them due to security concerns. I and a few others mentioned Gophernicus, which SMJ was kind enough to install and which now powers the SDF gopher sites. It supports much of the CGI standard and was designed with security in kind. Now that we have mole capability back, I'd like to revisit Slerm [0], my gopher phlogging engine that was based partly on Germ [1], by wt. Last I checked Slerm did not work as-is, and will need some work. This would allow you to dump text files in a directory and have the phlog engine (really a gopher CGI script) display them in date order, broken up in pages, with links to archives and with tag and simple comment support (think Bloxsom for gopher). The latest version of Germ seems to support Gophernicus, so perhaps that is a good starting point.

posted at: 08:01 | path: / | permalink | bucktooth, cgi, germ, gopher, gophernicus, mole, phlog, slerm

Tue, 28 Jun 2011

Ideas for Improving Slerm

There are some ideas I've had for improving the slerm phlogging engine [0], the main one being adding full-text search. In fact, this seems to be a drawback to gopher itself - although the Veronica and VISHNU searches [1] are useful, they index only selectors - not full-text [2]. For a lightweight, text-based protocol, this seems a big weakness. It means you have to hunt around gopherspace for interesting tidbits, since selector names aren't always that descriptive. It appears WAIS was meant to address this limitation, although only for locally connected gopher servers via a special client (think pre-internet).

Anyway, if you have any ideas on what would be a useful addition to slerm, leave a comment and let me know.

posted at: 18:52 | path: / | permalink | code, ideas, slerm