As it has been said a new system is on the cards, it seems timely to talk about what would be the best things to include in a new system. Here is a newuser's perspective: Text based systems like Grex, and others - are in decline, or have been overlooked for GUI based web systems. But why is this so? As a new generation discovers the UNIX toolchest/vault of commands, especially the Linux userbase, it seems a text based system is very useful, even to normal joe public, aswell as IT professionals/system admins. A couple of ideas for any new system, or any text base conferencing system in general: So why are text based systems so little used? My first thoughts as a new user, is they take a long while to picture in your mind, to get you bearings. So one idea, i think would be useful - is an easy accessable 'map' of the text based system. Something you can look at and see on one screen of a terminal window, or one screen at a time for meaningful areas of the system; maybe like a table of contents, or an actual map of some kind. Another idea along with picturing the map of the system, is a common set of commands taken from text based systems that have been developed - a comparison of the command sets of the best systems and maybe using the best of each? All this with a view to internationalization/easy translation into other languages. I had, in my head a quote from the lead lawyer for the Free Software Foundation in my mind, when he said something along the lines of: "when we use commands to drive our computers, we use a language the computer can understand, it is also elegant and resource friendly. When we use a GUI to communicate with the computer, the langauge we use ia akin to 'poiniting and grunting'." And so with the language of a conferencing system, i supose? And so the rationale for using text based systems in the 21stCentury i imagine?5 responses total.
A lot of good thoughts, mijk. Making all the areas of the system as visible and accessible as possible is important. All-conference search and web interface are important elements, too.
for a web interface see the CIX system, i just joined, after putting it off for ages. They have the best web forum interface i have ever used, and they still have a text interface/system you can use to access all the conferences (the CoSy conferencing system - well used back in the day) well worth a look. Infact a great place, just look at the "justjoined" conference, i amthe same username as on mono.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIX sign up for a free account if you are interested: http://www.cixonline.com/forums.asp btw the more i use bbs, the more i like the system, the commands are logical and easy to navigate the whole discussion lists, and i am/was a big fan of the menu based system like mono has before - i like both now.
BRING BACK GOPHER.. In all seriousness, I think a revamped version of gopher with some sort of super-veronica would be cool for a text based research database. No distractions
resp:3 Judging from recent activing on the Gopher mailing list interest in the Gopher protocol is increasing, and there are several proposals for improved versions. Some of the efforts are being led by active Grexers, who will perhaps post some details here.
3 and 4: There has been some work in Gopher space recently, and in related spaces (see Project Gemini of Circumluar Space). Some folks are adding TLS to gopher, others are making their own protocols. I haven't seen any serious work on a new search engine, but there has been some chatter. The lack of distractions is a huge selling point for Gopher, in my opinion. I realize that the protocol itself is dated. It's probably not a Good Idea in general. But it doesn't matter. What matters, in the end, is what humans are willing to use, and what they do end up using. As far as research tools and databases... I'm not sure Gopher is the right approach. Unless you're talking about researching existing Gopher content? Bottom line is, if you want to do it, do it. Gopherspace will most likely rally to support you.
You have several choices: