Proposal to drop double slashes from URL syntax

[Louis Brauer]

URIs are already standardized:
 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986

specifically in Section 3.3 you'll find the description about //.

I don't think changing gemini URIs to a non-standard format would bring any advantage to the project.

- Louis

Am Di, 9. Feb 2021, um 17:12, schrieb Daniel Nagy:
> Hello,
> 
> I want to propose to drop the double slashes from the gemini URL 
> syntax.
> 
> The reason for this is that they dont serve any semantic value and 
> while the
> project is still young, I think it could still be changed. So 
> instead of
> 
>     gemini://example.com
> 
> we would have:
> 
>     gemini:example.com
> 
> In fact, Sir Tim Berners-Lee apologized[0] for introducing them in 
> the http URL
> syntax. I see the following advantages and disadvantages:
> 
> Advantages:
>   - Less typing
>   - Less wasted screenspace
>   - Less transfered bytes and less stored bytes on disk and memory
> 
> Disadvantages:
>   - Newcomers might see familiarities with http in the double 
>   slashed syntax and
>     recognize, that the following token is a hostname, which will 
>     be contacted.
>     There is a chance that, without the slashes, newcomers might 
>     expect
>     something else than a hostname after the color, although I 
>     personally think
>     that chance is low.
>   - Implementations would need to adapt to this and some URL 
>   parsers in their
>     respective languages might not support the parsing of such 
>     syntax.
>   - Automatic URL detectors, like for example a terminal emulators 
>   where you can
>     click on a URL and it openes, might have trouble detecting 
>     this URL form and
>     therefore not recognize links. Those terminal emulators would 
>     need adaption.
> 
> Of course, the double slashed syntax could still be supported, but 
> the more
> compact format could be encouraged. Any feedback or suggestions 
> would greatly be
> welcomed.
> 
> Regards,
> Daniel
> 
> [0]: https://www.sitepoint.com/sir-tim-berners-lee-http-slashes/
>