Proposal to drop double slashes from URL syntax

[Nico]

On 09/02/2021 16:12, Daniel Nagy wrote:
> 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/
I don't really feel like the benefits of this are worth the drawbacks 
that we would be breaking the URL standard, breaking existing 
URL-handling libraries, just breaking things for the sake of, what, 
saving two bytes? I don't think it's worth it. If you want to save 
screen space, just don't display the gemini://, if you are in a gemini 
client it is safe to assume you are speaking gemini (many web browsers 
don't display the "https://" for similar reasons)