[server question] What can be done with server side scripting?

[Omar Polo]

Andrew Singleton <singletona082 at gmail.com> writes:

> I suppose I should come up with a use case I want and then ask if they can
> be done we I really don't feel in my depth on technical aspects.
>
> I just know serve scripts are possible, but I don't know what is
> realistically doable and it of that what actually works within the
> protocol's strengths.

You can do almost anything that involves a request-response cycle.  With
something really hacker-ish you can also do things slightly interactive
that leverages the 10/11 responses (I read somewhere that someone was
building a REPL over Gemini) and possibly client certificates to manage
the session.

Realistically, it also depends on the clients.  One cool thing that may
be done over Gemini, but I'm not sure about client support, is streaming
text/gemini pages.  One could, for instance, build a "Feed" (or a
"Notification" page) that keeps the connection open and sends the
updates to the client on the fly.

Anyway, without something more specific to discuss, scripts (that may be
either functions loaded *into* the server, or CGI/FastCGI scripts, or
something else entirely) can do anything the protocol allows, that is,
sending any type of content (not only text/gemini, but images, video,
audio, ...), require input and manage the session with client
certificates.  There are some examples at awesome-gemini[0], but it's
not comprehensive (stuff like station isn't mentioned AFAICS).

Cheers,


[0]: https://github.com/kr1sp1n/awesome-gemini#services