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Anyone working on an alternative to nomadnet's pages?
Int32 (Profile): (2025-05-18 18:48:31 (UTC))
Nomadnet pages do work pretty well, however, they are made in micron which is pretty limited compared to HTML(which is not limited enough :) and the protocol is just not very well documented and powerfull. So I was thinking about making an alternative protocol, similar to the one nomad is using but maybe closer to HTTP that would support micron and in addition another XML based markup format. I would like to know if anyone is already working on something like that, or if you have any suggestions.
No need to reinvent the wheel, gemini protocol already has a simple markdown language that is better than micron but not as bloated as HTML check it out. duckduckgo for "gemini protocol" so is not confused with stupid g00gle AI shit :)
Their markdown does look good, I'll take a look at it, but I think we still do need a good protocol.
I read the protocol specifications and I think we could just port gemini to reticulum, gemtext is enough and the protocol does what it needs to do. Their idea of using prompts instead of forms might be annoying in some cases, but for login certificates can be used, which is just better than username/password.
It'd have to be more of a fork, because the gmi protocol pretty much assumes and integrates with TLS. A fork would be straightforward though. Does TLS make sense over Reticulum when Reticulum provides the identity and encryption "built-in"?
I mean, the Gemini markup is pretty solid and could just be used as-is. The protocol itself is pretty simple and could probably easily be adapted to work over reticulum.
Edit: typo
The reason NomadNet Pages feel so weird compared to more standard XML markup is because it's designed for maximum efficiency.
Why?
Because LoRa... and other stuff too. This thing is supposed to work over everything ;)
That's not to say an alternative isn't possible, and I do encourage you to check out things like SherbyNode's Gemini/Gopher proxies as well to get a sortof preview of what's possible...
Well, XML is a possibility but it is quite bulky, but I think not having a gemini proxy but a full gemini implementation(with a few modifications) would be good. I have already played with gemini on reticulum and it does work quite well, and for the certificate system we could use reticulum identities instead of TLS certificates.
Also I don't like micron's syntax.
Yeah, I've been playing with micron a bit, and having to style each individual link is kind of a pain. I can't believe I'm finding myself longing for CSS. 🙃
... okay, maybe not full-on CSS, but something...
the beauty of gemtext is it leaves most styling choices up to the client.
You already can pre process stuff, any file marked as an executable will run and return the stdout as the micron page.
Pick your script of choice, slap a sheabang and be happy
if you want some code to help in this project. Go to my proxy code page https://github.com/cotteux/RGproxy a github
I was using this yesterday. Well done. I agree with the general sentiment here that we could definitely do better with gemtext over micron. I spent some time trying to find the source to no avail. Thank you for posting the link :D
I made an implementation of gemini over reticulum btw:
https://codeberg.org/int32/gemini-reticulum
However, I must warn you, the UI/UX of the clients I made is horrible.
Also the only capsule on there is mine.
It would be enough to just render micron pages in the style of a traditional HTML page I think. That's enough for me. Styling would still be a pain in the arse though, wish there was stylesheet support in micron.
I am enjoying micron tbqh. I use Scheme to make pages and when things reach the level of needing a stylesheet I abstract the code up a level. Feelsgoodman