The idea being that it would work (as a client) on any browser, from Netscape 2 onward. So users wouldn't need a special client to download. It would only use HTML, no JS. Can be hosted from a simple web server using an HTTPS connection if needed. Would be easy to setup and run. I got the whole summer ahead.
Worth doing? Pointless endeavor?
Is it worth creating a chat server?
Oliver Watson
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Sebastian Smith
yes, it is easy. you could throw together a basic system in an hour with something like rails, adding stuff like auth/kick/ban would also be fairly easy. ive seen something like this on tor a long time ago, you had to refresh the page to see new messages.
personally i'd still use JS so you didnt have to refresh to see new messages.
>Worth doing?
what is this for?
Gabriel Mitchell
Tor hidden services have chats that work pretty much like that, because nobody with an ounce of sense on Tor has JS enabled.
Check it: github.com
Caleb Perry
Live chats would constantly auto-update. Offline chats would jsut have a refresh button.
>what is this for?
Making a simple, universal chat system to work on any machine created in the last 30 years or so.
Julian Morales
>setup ircd
>setup webclient/write a quick one
>sorted
Jason Cook
I made something like this for fun when I was about 12. It's pretty easy
Lucas Gonzalez
I never liked IRC
Austin Torres
The concept is easy, but when you want to add lots of admin features, it gets more complicated
Jeremiah Peterson
cool, but wouldnt that refresh even if a person was typing in a new message?
Carson Long
You could also consider just setting up a bbs where you basically get all these features from standard Unix tools. It could have a web frontend if you really desire.
Go Google how people shared files and shit before the internet.
Jeremiah Bailey
Frames
Sebastian Gray
See my latest post about a bbs, also, it shouldn't really be that hard with any rdms, but I guess that depends on your knowledge and skills to level
The real question is: do you want to write this from scratch, or just have a solution that meets your requirements? Because it's not like the old messaging software disappeared, it's still available.
Henry Phillips
so it's like discord
Aiden Clark
They are annoying as hell though, you could do better. I definitely used better chat pages that were js free about 20 years ago
Landon Ramirez
What if you just made an irc frontend that doesn't need JavaScript? Might save a lot of work
Sebastian Brooks
The thing is, I haven't seen a server that is literally just one file "chatserver.exe" where you run, and you're off to the races on a default configuration. That's what I want to create. Otherwise, no one will care to use it. A 90 year old should be able to host one without trouble.
Tyler Thompson
>A 90 year old should be able to host one without trouble
too bad they cant figure out how to open ports on their router
Justin Sanders
I've never used it. But discord is a proprietary chat service that requires an app. I don't care for them.
Cooper Smith
Well that is easier to do than to have to learn the ins and outs of unix.
Juan Lewis
Their app is build on electron and you can just use the web client
Carter Cruz
How are you going to do that with only HTML and no JS? Are you going to submit a form whenever anyone wants to say something, and just expect everyone else to refresh their page over and over to see if any new messages are available?
Evan Sullivan
The chat area will be contained within a frame, this frame will have a setting to auto-update every couple seconds. Its rudimentary, but it allows any computer even one built in the 80s to talk on the web with current ones. Because... why not.
Jackson Sanders
>he doesn't browse Jow Forums with noscript enabled while constantly mashing f5
Mason Hall
>this frame will have a setting to auto-update every couple seconds
That's retarded. You're forcing the browser to re-download and re-render the chat page every couple of seconds.
>it allows any computer even one built in the 80s to talk on the web
Except that only modern graphical browsers implement meta refresh, so your solution won't work on old machines or even in CLI browsers.
You're making a far less efficient and less accessible solution than you would have if you just used a little javascript.
Dominic Price
> t. fucktard that designs webforms with literally no scripting required but which nevertheless have their action set to "#" and run an ajax query before changing window.location to the next page
I swear to God if I come across one more website that requires JavaScript to login, or simply navigate the website, I'm going to massacre every last fucking web developer I can get my hands on.
What ever happened to "degrade gracefully," or "don't use JavaScript for core functionality"
Jesus fuck I hate this generation of websites. Seriously I think fucking flash portals were better than this bullshit.
Brody Garcia
Sorry I directed my anger towards you. You are probably 18 and don't remember that the internet once existed without every website loading 10k lines of fucking JavaScript.
Jacob Campbell
>>this frame will have a setting to auto-update every couple seconds
>That's retarded. You're forcing the browser to re-download and re-render the chat page every couple of seconds.
>>it allows any computer even one built in the 80s to talk on the web
>Except that only modern graphical browsers implement meta refresh, so your solution won't work on old machines or even in CLI browsers.
>You're making a far less efficient and less accessible solution than you would have if you just used a little javascript.
I already tested this on a mac se/30. Works fine. Yes it is not as efficient bandwidth wise. Don't really care, bandwidth is cheap.
Isaac Lopez
>far less efficient and less accessible solution than you would have if you just used a little javascript
the problem is that older browsers dont have any modern JS capabilities so the only backwards compatible way is to have no JS and use CSS2 unless you want to see old browsers horribly mangle CSS3 (or you can target based on user agent, which is also a pain)
Lucas Martinez
>Seriously I think fucking flash portals were better than this bullshit.
They were!
Dylan Adams
Its all over but the crying. 99% if of users have JS enabled and the ones that don't are either autists like you and me or people with really really old browser. Modern web devs have no reason to not use extreme amounts of JS for everything.
William Thomas
Well I'll admit, as someone that has worked on modern websites, that sometimes JS is the only way to get shit done, not because it's necessary but because some web platforms suck ass. Sometimes stuff ends up being implemented in JS because that's the simplest way to build on top of someone else's shit.
Ryan Green
>bbs's
> kek
BBS's are only good for getting your shit punched in through exploits. leave that shit where it belongs..
in the past
Connor Lee
>Making a simple, universal chat system to work on any machine created in the last 30 years or so.
IRC has been here since 1988
Jace Rodriguez
setting up an irc server is a pain in the ass
Asher Campbell
found the retard
Austin Hall
OP is talking about basically recreating IRC from scratch with a web front-end that doesn't use javascript, sounds more of a pain in the ass to me, desu
Jacob Bell
>chat over HTTP
what a fucking idiotic nightmare, don't do this.
John Bailey
Setting up an IRC server is easier than an httpd.
Aiden Ross
>Worth doing? Pointless endeavor?
if it makes you happy then go for it, but IRC exists and can be accessed via HTTP or an IRC client.
I would recommend checking out unrealRCd or InspIRCd
> never liked irc
> trying to replicate IRC
?
> BBS
> exploits
list some and provide links, you stupid fucking retard.
Oliver Reyes
BBSes were never widespread enough to have common exploits. It was all hand written shit and that's obviously a big problem in retrospect. Big but low low scale cause tiny scale BBS shit. [spoiler]t. pwnd bbs for internet access as a kid[/spoiler]
Adam James
> Mum I did not undersand what I'm taking about but I'm sure the problem is in JS!
Adam Allen
>BBSes were never widespread enough to have common exploits
ahahahah. never were widespread enough? where the fuck have you been since the end of the 1970s? quality shitposting
>It was all hand written shit and that's obviously a big problem in retrospect
what a retard
>t. pwnd bbs for internet access as a kid
> for internet access
oh yeah, sure you did. top fuckin kek. you're a clueless zoomer cancer born yesterday. how i love zoomer revisionist history. fuck off and die.
Nolan Torres
Individual BBSes were not widespread enough to have exploits in common with all the other BBS codebases. If you're interested I'm sure archive.org has a bunch of them laying around somewhere.
Mason Sullivan
>BBSes were never widespread enough to have common exploits
>Individual BBSes were not widespread enough to have exploits in common with all the other BBS codebases
zommer revisionist history, everyone. can't even stick to one fucking story. shut the fuck up.
Cameron Wood
What does this mean?
Jackson Cruz
upnp should be able to open the ports though.
Jackson Ramirez
upnp should definitely not be opening people's ports because tech has proven itcan't be trusted with that.
Anthony Cook
>trying to remake IRC in HTML
absolutely fucking disgusting
Eli Mitchell
>no JS
this could be an issue for incremental updates. with single new message in stream you would need to reload whole page with all previous messages ovehead
unless there is some iframe magic or similar that could only update a part of website without JS
>inb4 frames
thus you would need to work a lot on caching - e.g. pre-generate a whole page per message stream server-side, let's say ever 5 seconds, and serve this to all clients (in contrast to generating it asynchronously per-request).
As a project, that's pretty easy and beginner-friendly.
>worth doing?
you won't have users and will have to pay server or at least static public IP
Kayden Smith
it depends on the router but many routers will let you open and forward a port through UPNP. When I was setting up workstations for a company a few years back, I had a script that would open a couple ports automatically if it was possible, I had control over all the PC hardware and software but the routers at the different locations would differ, I saved a good chunk of time using UPNP instead of figuring out the http interface for all those routers.
Nicholas Ramirez
I'd be surprised if an ISP-issued modem let you do this. I had to set my modem in bridge mode so I could port forward with my router, good luck teaching a boomer how to do that.