I have been enjoying the widespread
discussion of the gopher protocol. I
really don't have much to add to the
discussion. I like plain text. In my
first phlog entry, I mentioned that I
enjoy the absence of hyperlinks. I like
that the form of plain text documents
makes no demand of me other than to
follow the ideas and arguments of the
author. I also quite enjoy the odd sense
of solitude and quiet provided by the
terminal, but I've written about that
elsewhere too.
It was surprising to learn that I could
be mimicking the essentials of gopher
via the web. When Solderpunk mentioned
it in his most recent phlog entry, I
immediately created a couple of text
files in a folder inside my html
directory at www.circumlunar.space, just
to see how it would work. I knew about
the automatically generated file lists
produced by web servers, but I didn't
realize that the .txt file extension
would allow me to serve text files. That
may change the way I use my web space
completely.
* * *
I have an Android phone that I use as a
small tablet when I'm at home. For the
last few months, I have been using
Diggie Dog as my Gopher Client. But a
few days ago, I decided to try out
Pocket Gopher, only to discover that
there was a bug in the current version
at F-Droid (1.2.5) that prevents it from
installing correctly. The previous
version (1.2.4) does work. Meanwhile, a
user at Github, Low012, has forked the
app, fixed the bug, and submitted a pull
request, but his fix -- which was
submitted two months ago -- has not been
adopted yet. So I decided to download
the source code and build Low012's
version 1.2.5.
Then.... once I had the app open in
Android Studio, I thought, I'd really
like to make some changes....
One thing that I didn't like was the
bookmark font size, which was rather
large. So I reduced it. I also thought
that I might change the colour scheme.
There was a webOS app called 'Forums'
that I used to use all the time years
ago. I really liked its design, so I
found the base colour used in that app
and re-styled Pocket Gopher in an homage
to Forums. Lastly, I decided to change
the app icon, which is a rather generic
android robot, to Solderpunk's Port 70
sticker design, which I really like (I
wrote to Solderpunk for permission). I
think the result is quite nice, but your
tastes may differ.
I don't consider the changes to
constitute a fork, although I may fork
the app in the future to provide myself
with an easy way to integrate any
updates. But really, it's just a
restyled version of Pocket Gopher. The
app is licensed under the "unlicense,"
which permits the modification and
redistribution of the binary and/or the
source code, so I've put it in a GMX
share for anyone who wants to use it.
You can find it at:
https://c.gmx.com/@562929122364364709/uG3QwCi2Rjy76LetnlBPgQ
The folder password is: gopher
If you install the app, be aware that it
will overwrite your existing Pocket
Gopher bookmark file and you'll lose
your bookmarks. If your device is
rooted, you can save the file elsewhere
and then restore it afterward. It is
located at:
/data/data/com.gmail.afonsotrepa.pocketgopher/files/bookmarks
It's just a text file, so it's also
handy to know the location so that you
can edit the file to reorganize your
bookmarks.
