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Show HN: Gopher Browser for Windows Client

jaruzel.com

91 pointsJaruzel36 comments

I remember Gopher and another one called WAIS. Then one day, somebody told me on irc I needed to download 'Mosaic', and I remember thinking how superior Gopher was at the time and thought this 'www thing' would never catch on because there was so much information on Gopher and WAIS.

I found out about Mosaic from Usenet (alt.hypertext I think) - I remember thinking it sounded interesting but also wondering why you'd want to load hypertext documents over a network. :-)

Oh man, I don't think I have much/any use for this today, but my first internet experience was on Gopher. They had it set up on what I'm assuming were some kind of *nix machines at the local library. I would search for comic book related material and generally "surf" around when my mother would drive me down there. Fortunately the Internet went public in '97, my jr high school had several networked computers, eventually all on the Internet blah blah netscape.

Oh, this is you! [1] Grats on release!

The last big thread on Gopher here was pretty entertaining, nostalgic, and informative [2] -- including posts by the creators -- and it's the one where OP posted that they're working on a new windows client [1].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12274235 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12269784

Yup me! And thanks!

"Gopher Browser for Windows Client" is rather confusing; why not just "Gopher Browser for Windows"?

Google search friendly title.

I'm curious: what's still in gopherspace these days? Worthwhile things?

Check out sdf.org. Users are encouraged to create their own gopherspace.

gopher://gopher.metafilter.com :)

Sibling responses ruined my day. I'll never get anything done now.

If you use Firefox, you can get Gopher support in an extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/overbiteff/

Works great.

I believe this used to be a native part of FF, but they refactored it to an addon.

Read more about Cameron Kaiser's Overbite project here:

http://gopher.floodgap.com/overbite/

Is there source code I can audit and compile instead of running some random exe file?

I say you transfer it to an air-gapped computer, try it and then have it nuked from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

How do you feel about reading assembly?

I don't hide who I am, a bit of googling will net you my address and phone number. So I think it's fair to say, that if I was going to release malware, I'd hardly host it on my own site would I?

I'm not a fan of Open Sourcing my own code, due to bad experiences in the past, sorry.

First of all, thanks for your work!

I'm not trying to change your mind, but I'm curious about your bad experiences.

Just the fact that you're not giving into the FOSS brigade pushed me over the edge to download and use it.

> if I was going to release malware, I'd hardly host it on my own site would I?

That argument has never held water for me... I'm not saying you are malicious, not at all. But if someone did want to release malware, it isn't impossible to create a fake persona, put up fake contact info, or impersonate someone. Or even hack someone else's site to put up a corrupted download. Admittedly, this one smells pretty safe... but it is even safer to just set a rule for oneself not to download executables off the web.

I respect your right to code and deliver it how you see fit. I just also respect other people's decisions to not download it for security concerns.

Likewise. I'm not forcing anyone to download it. :)

I'm also not a fake persona. Or if I am - I've been playing the long game since before the year 2000...

This is great, and it's so fast. Some feature requests:

* map backspace and arrow-left to previous page

* map enter/return to select

* open text files, images and sounds inline

Good ideas, I'll add them to the to-do list!

Chrome Warning: This file is not commonly downloaded and may be dangerous.

Nice try Google

So google tracks downloads?

Seems so, but keep in mind that it can provide that UX without being able to recover the individual data about who downloaded what.

Actually, they can provide that (somewhat publicly responsible) UX by extension without tracking at all. It doesn't sound very "googly" to do so, but who knows, maybe they do... ;)

> Actually, they can provide that (somewhat publicly responsible) UX by extension without tracking at all.

I don't understand what you mean here. How can aggregate long download stats exist without aggregation?

if (extension === zip || tar || ...) then "This file is not commonly downloaded and may be dangerous."

Kind of like putting a warning sign at the swamp without poking for alligators (or yodas)

> Chrome Warning: This file is not commonly downloaded and may be dangerous.

The warning is about download frequency of a particular file, not filetype.

This. I've gotten it when redownloading old PS2 homebrew stuff that I'd used in the past and knew was safe, and that's about it. They were mostly zip and exe files.

Sure, but I don't remember being asked to share this information either, that's the issue here.

hmm https://www.virustotal.com/de/file/ae0325bd27a6797c16ce44b30...

Absolutely not. That's a false positive caused by the SetHandler.exe that's included in the zip.

SetHandler is used if you want to register GopherBrowser as the handler for gopher:// links - it adds some values and keys to the Classes_Root registry hive, which is probably why it's being flagged as a false positive by only 1 out of 61 AntiVirus products.

Rescan just GopherBrowser.exe and it will be clean.

If SetHandler.exe worries you, just delete it.

Instead of just posting 'hmm' and trying to discredit my work, how about you actually ask why it flagged, or better yet do proper analysis on the files and comment accordingly.

I run a clean ship, there is no way I'd release virus-laden software with or without my name on it.

I love exploring gopherspace from time to time. Usually I use Lynx but I may have to give this a try.

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