[gopher] Existing \n.\n behavior

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

Testing \n.\n in the middle of a file
-------------------------------------
Clients:
   UMN gopher: no special behavior
   lynx: no special behavior
   netscape4: no special behavior
   konqueror: no special behavior
   IE 5.1/mac: aborts transfer at \n.\n

Testing \n.\n at the end of a file
----------------------------------
Clients:
   UMN gopher: strips it
   lynx: no special behavior
   netscape4: no special behavior
   konqueror: no special behavior
   IE: strips it

Testing no \n.\n at all
-----------------------
Clients:
   UMN gopher: no problems
   lynx: no problems
   netscape4: no problems
   konqueror: no problems
   IE: no problems

UMN gopherd server behavior
---------------------------
   Normal file (no \n.\n in it): adds \n.\n at end
   File with \n.\n in middle: passes it through, adds \n.\n at end
   File with \n.\n at the end: passes it through, adds another \n.\n

 From this, we can conclude:

1.  Since the majority of the Ineternet's gopher servers are presumably 
running UMN gopherd, we know that they are not doing any special 
escaping of \n.\n.

2. Of the clients tested, only Internet Explorer did anything special 
with \n.\n occuring in the middle of a file.  All other clients passed 
it through.

3. Only UMN gopher and IE strip \n.\n at the end of a file.  Only IE has 
trouble with \n.\n in the middle of the file.

Therefore:

4. Abolishing \n.\n from being added by servers will have zero negative 
impact on tested clients.

5. Abolishing all \n.\n behavior will resolve ambiguity about \n.\n 
occurring at the end of existing text files in UMN gopher immediately 
(and hopefully IE soon).  It will also resolve ambiguity about \n.\n in 
the middle of files in IE.

6. Clients expecting \n.\n at the end of a file but not getting it are 
fine.  (Old client, new server scenario)

7. Clients not expecting \n.\n at the end of the file but getting it 
anyway will simply display a "." at the end.  All but UMN gopher and IE 
do this already anyway.  (New client, old server scenario)

I conclude that immediately abolishing all special \n.\n behavior from 
all software under the control of this group would have a net positive 
impact on gophers net-wide, even considering the large installed base of 
legacy software.

-- John