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--- tools:gopher [2026/03/12 20:48] – [Hosting Gopher Sites] Humphrey Boa-Gart
+++ tools:gopher [2026/03/12 22:29] (current) – [Dynamic Gopher Sites] Humphrey Boa-Gart
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 **Gopher** is an ancient internet protocol for serving something similar to web pages. Like HTTP, it serves pages, media & files, using inline links to connect the pages of a Gopher site.
-Unlike HTTP, there are no fancy headers. Neither is there style information associated with it. Gopher markup language is a lot more concise than HTML, providing just barely enough functionality to tell the server where on the page to put links & plain text. All styling is decided by the visitor's Gopher browser, just like with [[tools:irc|IRC]]. As a result, Gopher sites are //extremely// fast to load, as they consume a fraction of the bandwidth it takes to transmit an HTML page.
+Unlike HTTP, there are no [[tools:http-headers|fancy headers]]. Neither is there style information associated with it. Gopher markup language is a lot more concise than HTML, providing just barely enough functionality to tell the server where on the page to put links & plain text. All styling is decided by the visitor's Gopher browser, just like with [[tools:irc|IRC]]. As a result, Gopher sites are //extremely// fast to load, as they consume a fraction of the bandwidth it takes to transmit an HTML page.
 Scripting options are far more limited as well. The Gopher ecosystem relatively resistant to many common methods of browser fingerprinting, as well as ad beacons and advertising in general //(Though it is not entirely private as it does not support TLS)//. This has made the Gopherspace a popular niche destination well into the 21st century for those looking for a simpler, more intentional, and less distracting internet.
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 ==== Visually ====
-The slickest and easiest solution is to install [[https://gmi.skyjake.fi/lagrange/|Lagrange]]. It's fast, the interface is clean, and it's available for [[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lagrange-smallnet-browser/id1554714615|iOS]], [[https://flathub.org/en/apps/fi.skyjake.Lagrange|Flatpak]], and a multitude of [[https://git.skyjake.fi/gemini/lagrange/releases|other platforms]]. Even better, it also supports the [[tools:gemini|Gemini]] protocol, which is sort of a modern version of Gopher with a few extra convenience & markup features. The Gopher & Gemini ecosystems are very close to each other, so having them both in the same browser is very useful.
+The slickest and easiest solution is to install [[https://gmi.skyjake.fi/lagrange/|Lagrange]]. It's fast, the interface is clean, and it's available for [[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lagrange-smallnet-browser/id1554714615|iOS]], [[https://flathub.org/en/apps/fi.skyjake.Lagrange|Flatpak]], and a multitude of [[https://git.skyjake.fi/gemini/lagrange/releases|other platforms]]. Even better, it also supports the [[tools:gemini|Gemini]] protocol, which is sort of a modern version of Gopher with a few extra convenience & markup features. The Gopher & Gemini ecosystems are very close to each other, so having them both in the same browser is very useful. It's not uncommon for Gopher/Gemini servers to have parallel [[tools:finger|Finger]] services either, and Lagrange has support for that protocol as well.
 If you want more options, check [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)#Client_software|Wikipedia]], but I'm telling you that Lagrange is the way to go if you want an elegant GUI app that's easy to use.
@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 ==== Dynamic Gopher Sites ====
-It is true that you can only transmit a limited & specific set of data between server & visitor over the Gopher protocol. However, you can do //virtually unlimited// server-side processing as long as the output follows the protocol's transmission format.
+It is true that you can only transmit a limited amount of datatypes between server & visitor over the Gopher protocol. However, you can do //virtually unlimited// server-side processing as long as the output follows the protocol's transmission format.
-Most Gopher servers have support for running **CGI scripts**, like the internet of old used to have to do with PHP scripts. Modern PHP installs now use a heavily abstracted version of this, which are tailored specifically for HTTP, so they don't work with Gopher servers too well. However, modern PHP installs also come with ''php-cli'', which spits out data in a simplified form //especially// suited for Gopher. You just make a CGI wrapper for your PHP scripts, and pass it to ''php-cli'' like this:
+Most Gopher servers have support for running **CGI scripts**, like the internet of old used to have to do with PHP scripts. Modern PHP installs use heavily abstracted versions of this now, which are tailored specifically for HTTP, so they don't work with Gopher servers too well. However, modern PHP installs also come with ''php-cli'', a command-lined version of PHP which spits out plaintext data in a form //especially// suited for Gopher. You just make a CGI wrapper for your PHP script, and pass it to ''php-cli'' like this:
 <file cgi loader.cgi>
@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 </file>
-As long as the data can be parsed by a Gopher server, this means you can actually have complex database driven websites //(within reason)// in the Gophersphere.
+As long as the data can be parsed by a Gopher server, this means you can actually have complex database-driven websites //(within reason)// in the Gophersphere. This trick is equally applicable to the [[tools:gemini|Gemini]] platform as well.
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-{{tag>Tools}}
+{{tag>Tools Protocols}}

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