Re: [gopher] Correct error handling
On 2012-05-11, Kim Holviala wrote:
> On 11.5.2012 15:48, Damien Carol wrote:
>
>> Yes, your solution is good.
>> Maybe we can check that every server and proxy handle error like this.
>
> Think about what you just said.... and I mean, really, think about it.
>
> Nevergonnahappen.
>
> You cannot change existing clients or servers, ever. Whatever you plan
> *has* to work with existing infrastructure.
>
> This is the best I was able to come up with:
>
> gopher://gophernicus.org/0/foobar.txt
> gopher://gophernicus.org/1/foobar/
> gopher://gophernicus.org/h/foobar.html
> gopher://gophernicus.org/g/foobar.gif
>
> None of those really exist, of course. Here the server is trying to
> guess what the client wanted and presents the error accordingly. Not
> foolproof at all, but it kinda works.
Nice approach!
There are (were? sdf-eu.org had one) some servers around which repeat
the selector type, so your examples would become:
gopher://gophernicus.org/00/foobar.txt
gopher://gophernicus.org/11/foobar/
gopher://gophernicus.org/hh/foobar.html
gopher://gophernicus.org/gg/foobar.gif
That is, the item type was part of the selector itself, and the server
would get the item type as part of the request.
I wonder if this was added to these servers with that in mind. It's at
least a way to help getting type-dependent error messages.
The problem, of course, would be if someone asked for a selector without
the repeated item type...
> If anyone of you wants to change the protocol from client side so that
> it's not 100% compatible with existing servers - check out Cameron's
> caps.txt. That's the right way to do it - the client must probe server
> properties first before assuming anything.
>
> And if anyone is thinking about changing the server-side so that it's
> not 100% compatible with existing clients... well... don't. You cannot
> replace *all* existing clients, ever.
>
> Let's take an practical example; Debian. I run several Debian Stable
> servers and they all (of course) have gopher clients. Would I ever
> install your patched (fixed) server or client? No. Never. Not gonna
> happen, ever. I would just "apt-get install" whatever is in the
> offical stable repos, and in Debian's case it might take years before
> your patches are available. And that's coming from someone who
> actually *likes* gopher.
--
Nuno J. Silva (aka njsg)
gopher://sdf-eu.org/1/users/njsg
http://njsg.sdf-eu.org/
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