Cache duration and response body size proposals

[Robert "khuxkm" Miles]

November 10, 2020 10:18 AM, "Johann Galle" <johann.galle at protonmail.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday, 10 November 2020 15:17, <khuxkm at tilde.team> wrote:
> 
> -snip-
> 
>> The main draw I can see for a Content-Length header is being able to see if
>> the whole file comes across the wire.
> 
> This is really not something gemini should be worried about, that is the job of
> TLS, as bie already pointed out.

And as I pointed out, relying on a close_notify to determine whether the entire response was received becomes a Two Generals problem.
 
>> That being said, I am wary of making it even a SHOULD.
>> If the file needs it ...
> 
> ... you should probably use another protocol which is better suited for
> transferring files, may I suggest FTP ;)

For the last time, "just use another protocol" isn't a valid excuse. The sentence I quoted from the FAQ doesn't say "Gemini should be used for things we think it should be used for and nothing more". It says that Gemini should be used for as many things as possible, while still staying with simplicity and privacy as the other ethos. You can serve large files over Gemini, so if there's a way to make downloading large files over Gemini better for the client without massively complicating things, we should at the very least consider it.

If I need to distribute text, I should use a protocol which is better suited for transferring plain text.

May I suggest Gopher? ;)

Just my two cents,
Robert "khuxkm" Miles