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Kristall – Visual cross-platform browser for gemini, http, https, gopher, finger (github.com/masterq32)
138 points by 1vuio0pswjnm7 on Nov 20, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 39 comments



If you'd like to learn more about the Gemini Protocol, head to https://geminiquickst.art/

And if you're more partial to terminal browsers, I've written my own. https://github.com/makeworld-the-better-one/amfora


Does gemini support forms or interactive ui?

I wonder if it's possible to make https://oeis.org/ that has a search field, available via gemini?


It does have a way to enter data. It's only a single line. It's intended specifically for searching, rather than data-entry.


Another excellent client is Lagrange: https://gmi.skyjake.fi/lagrange/


the easy selection of links via keycode shortcuts really sold it for me. I use something similar with Firefox's vimium add-on, bit its nice to see something like this already baked in. It shows a good understanding of their core user base


Yes, amazing piece of software.


Looking gorgeous, too!


seconded


For gemini I use either castor[0] or dragonstone[1]. Both are quite good, dragonstone even has tabs.

Both are written for GTK, so they integrate quite good with GNOME.

[0]: https://git.sr.ht/~julienxx/castor

[1]: https://gitlab.com/baschdel/dragonstone


It's good that dragonstone is built using GTK3. I wouldn't have considered it if it was a GTK4 app.


What's happening this time with GNOME?


They decided to make GTK4 apps exclusive to the desktop environment for which the app was built for. You could use it outside the intended DE but it will look alien.


That is simply not true: https://blog.elementary.io/linux-experiment-interview-cassid...

They have done pretty much the opposite - they added a proper API of theming instead of having a stylesheet override. GTK didn't really have themes before, so this is quite nice.


> They have done pretty much the opposite - they added a proper API of theming instead of having a stylesheet override.

That's not theming, that's just changing accent colors in the same theme. If I don't like dark background color, I can't change it. If I don't like the light background color, I can't change that either. All I can do is change accent colors.

The entire GTK and GNOME ecosystem is heading towards Android like customization and theming, which is basically non-existent at this point.


> GTK didn't really have themes before, so this is quite nice.

What?

GTK1 and GTK2 had zillions of actual themes and engines.


He's being pedantic. He means to say that because GTK had theming via stylesheets, it wasn't "real" theming but a hack.

Now, there's just a re-coloring API where I can't change the dark background if I don't like it and that's "real" theming.


What's wrong with GTK4?


GTK4 apps aren't meant to used outside of the platform for which they're built for. If the GTK4 app in question is built using libadwaita, it's meant to use only inside GNOME. If it's built using libgranite, it's meant to used only inside Pantheon (from elementaryOS).

Of course, you could use it in KDE or MATE or anywhere else but it would look completely alien with different themes and, potentially, different fonts and icons. You can't set your own theme without resorting to hacks.

If someone has come across a GTK4 app which isn't restricted to a specific desktop environment, let me know. Meanwhile, I won't use any GTK4 apps in existence.


Ah well, I understand. Thanks for the explanation!


Original title was "Graphical small-internet client", like the Github page title. Moderator changd it.


Kristall is good, but Lagrange is more finished, imho. But the great thing about Gemini is that it is possible to write a fully featured Gemini browser in a weekend, so there are plenty about. Just try writing your own Web browser with anything less than a couple-billion dollars handy. Even Microsoft gave up.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29291392


It seems based on Qt for cross-platform ui graphical toolkit, without surprise, nowadays people seem to have settlers on this (understandably)


That's nice! But since it's also for Windows, I was surprised not to see binary releases, just the source. Most Windows users won't bother compiling from source.

Edit: Found on the project page: https://kristall.random-projects.net/


This looks seriously cool.

I might install it in a VM like Palemoon (because security) and try use it as a main non-work browser to see how it fares.

IMO the world badly needs a truly independent browser.


> VM like Palemoon

umm, what?


PaleMoon inside a VM, for security reasons.

(In contrast to "up-to-date" browsers, which are definitely not full of exploitable security holes, despite frequent releases to which new code is constantly being added to them in large amounts.)


Correct.

I'm not in a position to judge the actual security of PaleMoon and for what I know it might be more secure for the reasons you point out.

As for why I won't use it without precautions I really do not want anyone to be able to use "this happened because skinkestek used an old browser, maintained by two persons in their spare time" if something goes south at some point.

That said, I have tested it and for me it wasn't just rose tinted memories, I prefer the UX of PaleMoon far to modern Firefox which I still prefer to Chrome (for both UX and personal reasons.)


Does this have its own original html renderer? That's really cool.


It has something different. Kristall parses HTML with gumbo and will re-emit cleaned HTML code that is then displayed as a rich text document.

It doesn't have inline images or anything, but only the text content


A reader-mode browser. Refreshing.

I wonder if one can make a Gemini browser for iOS bypassing the Apple rule that its own engine must always be used.


This comment was only three days ago, and I’m already in the process of munging my Wordpress exports to make .gmi format text. Gemini is yabba dabba doo awesome.


What can I do with Gopher and Finger? (isn't Gopher also a Haskell like programming lang?)


Gopher is a fork of Go language.

Gofer is Haskell-like language, replaced by Hugs.

I think the Gopher protocol predates both of them. It's kind of like HTTP but without HTML: just basic directory listings and files.


Wait, wasn't/isn't Hugs (also?) a compiler for Haskell?


It's a very old internet protocol that I've not encountered in more than 20 years and even at this time it was more of a curious remnant than something useful. I've never heard of finger and Gemini


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_(protocol)

Back when logging into a shell server was the standard way to access the Internet, finger provided a way to get information on users on a particular/site. E.g. finger someone@server.school.edu.

Usually you could create dotfiles named .project/.plan in your home directory, and the contents would be displayed for all to see. .project/.plan files were the blogs/tweets of that era. Sometimes I miss those simpler days!


Finger is even older (by over a decade).

Gemini is actually pretty new, sort of like a re-imagined Gopher.


Gopher is still alive (albeit small), Gemini sits between Gopher and Web,

https://thedorkweb.substack.com/p/gopher-gemini-and-the-smol...

https://gemini.circumlunar.space/





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