NANY 2018 Release: Gowser, a Gopher browser

[Tuxman]

NANY 2018 Entry Information

Application Name	Gowser
Short Description	A simple Gopher browser
Supported OSes	Compiled for Windows, would probably compile on *ix though
Web Page	https://bitbucket.org/tux_/gowser (currently, source only)
System Requirements	Binary: Windows. Source: Probably, Linux/Unix with GTK+ and Windows.
Version History	20171104: init. DC build, may or may not break.
Author

Description
'member Gopher? I 'member.
Why is Gopher Still Relevant?

Features

• Gowser will browse Gopher.
• Can make me procrastinate working on ymarks.

Planned Features

• Support for image and sound files.
• Support for Gopher's killer feature: searches.
• Bookmarks.

Screenshots


Usage
Installation
Unrar. Open the .exe. Enjoy.

Using the Application
Enter a Gopher URL.

Uninstallation
Remove the extracted .exe file.

Known Issues

• Most of plain Gopher works, media files (images and sound files) don't (yet). As they rarely occur, I decided to postpone their implementation.
• The one big advantage of Gopher towards HTTP is that you can easily search it. Maybe some day Gowser will support that, but it currently does not.
• This build creates a debug log. If you experience crashes, you can send it to me or something.
• There are crashes. Sorry.

[smaragdus]

@Tuxman

Thanks, but I think there is a lot to be desired:

• Toolbar- Back, Forward, Refresh, etc;
• Tabs;
• Bookmarks;
• History;
• Icon (embedded in the executable and title bar);

but I am afraid that implementing these features would severely exceed the initial purpose for this program.

It seems that Gowser uses Internet Explorer.

For Gopher I use OverbiteFF (available at Mozilla add-ons)- it works with Firefox (prior to version 57) and SeaMonkey.

Regards

[Tuxman]

Yes. (All of it, except:

It seems that Gowser uses Internet Explorer.

^ this depends on the OS. Gowser's GUI is wrapped over whatever is native.)

[Tuxman]

FYI: I had planned to write an Android version of Gowser for NANY '19. However, there already is an awesome Gopher client for Android which is exactly what I would have written:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.afewroosloose.gopher

[Tuxman]

FYI (2): There will not be a new Gowser version. The next version of what was Gowser will be a rewrite with a radically different approach and a lot of additional features.