Re: [GNUnet-developers] End-user wishlist

[anonymous1]

On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 07:57:23PM +0300, Igor Wronsky wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Jun 2003, N. Durner wrote:
> 
> > > I
> > > don't know how/if new protocol like 'gnunet://' could be added to any
> > > arbitrary browser easily.
> > There's no problem under Windows. MS IE and Netscape/Mozilla support it.
> 
> And gnunet is sooo muuuch windows application at the moment. What
> about Linux and the other unix style systems? I looked through my
> preferences in mozilla and I'm fairly certain there wasn't anything
> looking like that. If its not in the preferences its too complicated
> for average user to set for certain, and even more sure is that
> some install script can't set it automagically for arbitrary browser.
> On the other hand, almost any browser supports setting mime helper
> applications easily.

Setting up a proxy to use existing web browsers with GNUnet is quite a 
different problem from simply assigning a standard URL syntax to GNUnet 
content. Due to failings in the HTTP/HTML "web" that have arisen as the result 
of corporate involvement, I don't particularly seek to recreate those problems 
all over again on a new transport. That's why I didn't include that on my 
wishlist.

Yes, Mozilla sucks because it doesn't let you assign mailto: and ftp: (and 
gnunet:) URL's to "helper apps." We (Mozilla users) know this, hate it, and 
think JWZ is an idiot for his "do-it-my-way-or-not-at-all" approach to browser 
design, which has become a legacy that unfortunately carried over into the 
rewrite.

It was not my intention to address these things, because, as I said, it's a 
different problem with a different solution. (Actually, the real "solution" 
would be to vote for that bug in Mozilla's Bugzilla bug tracker. What you've 
proposed is merely a workaround.)

My wish is just for a standard URL syntax, agreed upon by the developers and 
implemented simply in gnunet-download. This would allow hypertext links to 
point to GNUnet content, and nothing more. Everything beyond that becomes an 
issue to be dealt with by developers of other projects: if I'm a Mozilla fan, I 
can take it up with Mozilla authors. If I use curl or libcurl, I can take it up 
with those developers. In fact, I would most like to see support added to XML 
parsers, for use with DocBook, TEI, RSS, RDF, and XSLT sources.

Alas, someone else appears to want to use Edonkey's URL scheme for GNUnet, so 
that wish, as the others, will have to wait until a bored developer implements 
it and finds a way to popularize it. And I was so looking forward to using 
RDF/XML to start building semantic content on GNUnet.