[tech] trailing '?' for input (was: entry field in gemtext)

[Michael Lazar]

On Sun, Sep 12, 2021 at 11:33 AM mbays <mbays@sdf.org> wrote:
>
> * Sunday, 2021-09-12 at 14:53 +0000 - nervuri <nervuri@disroot.org>:
>
> >On Fri, 2021-09-10, mbays wrote:
> >>=> /link? Enter your input
> >
> >So in order for a CGI script to do what you suggest:
> >
> >>* Doesn't break clients who ignore the convention, as long as the
> >>server returns 10 to a request with empty query.
> >
> >it would have to return 10 in response to both "/link" and "/link?",
> >which is not something we can expect everyone to do.
>
> Yes. So the problem is that people might create links using this
> convention without first checking that the target does return 10 on
> empty query, breaking compatibility with clients not following the
> convention.
>
> I think I agree that this is enough of a problem to make the convention
> a Bad Idea. Shame!
>
> It could still make sense as part of the gemini spec itself, but I'm not
> going to suggest that.

Let's generalize this a bit more:

If a gemini URL contains a query string, the client can show an edit
textbox with the existing query string as the pre-filled or suggested
value. The user can then edit the text, or submit it as-is (the
latter would preserve the existing behavior).

For example:

    gemini://example.com/input?default%20text

The client would show an input textbox prefilled with "default text".

Of course, this still doesn't solve the case where you want to show an
blank textbox to the user, but you could add a special case like:

If the query string contains a single question mark,
e.g. "gemini://example.com/input??", the client can set the suggested
text to an empty string "".

I don't like this part as much though, so maybe just keep the first
part.

Pros:

- Doesn't abuse URL semantics.
- Fully backwards compatible.
- More secure, as the user will see the query string before they
  click on it (prevents malicious URLs). Clients could even take
  this a step further and outline the textbox in yellow or red if
  the URL is for a cross-domain.

> Multiple text boxes might give the false impression of a form.

I think as long as each textbox has a dedicated "submit" button this
won't be so bad. Based on the original email it sounds like some
clients are already doing this anyway.

- Michael