[gopher] Any good programmers on here?

[Nick Matavka]

On 2 June 2012 11:37, Bradley D. Thornton <Bradley at northtech.us> wrote:
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> On 06/02/2012 12:56 AM, Nick Matavka wrote:
>> I've got
>> a cool vintage Web browser (and Gopher client!) that used to be the
>> W3C's testbed browser till they pawned it off on Yggdrasil, who
>> promptly disappeared.
>
> Yowza! LGX! I used to base my ISP services on that and Jolix when it
> became impossible to keep the Vaxen alive LOL!
>
> I've actually got the first few releases of Yggdrasil, and the first two
> editions of "The Linux Bible - The GNU Testament", on my bookshelf...
>
> hm... let's see here....
>
> Fall 93 - Linux Kernel version 0.99.13
>
> Summer 94 and Fall 94 too.
>
> I've got one of them running as a VM, which I fire up sometimes, and
> then there's my collection of old 386 boxes w/8bit ISA Ethernet NICs in
> my Sea Container that are presumably operational if I just plug them in :)
>
> That's totally kewl Nick! I didn't know that about the browser though. I
> spoke to Adam a couple of times back then, and have tried to find out
> what happened to him (and Phil Hughes - original publisher of LJ, who I
> *think* left the industry and moved to Panama or something) but the
> trail dead ends everywhere I look.
>
> You have a great idea there though.
>
>
> It' s called Arena and it would be great to see
>> it turn into Ygg's original vision, a GPL-licenced browser for the X
>> Window System (uses Motif).  I would love to see this browser turn
>> into an HTML 3 browser that would be lightweight and super fast,
>> something like Lynx with pretty pictures.
>>
>>  I've got the latest version right here.
>> http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/source/web/arena_0.3.62.orig.tar.gz
>>
>
> - --
> Bradley D. Thornton
> Manager Network Services
> NorthTech Computer
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Now that I've mentally woken up, I have something more coherent for you.

Yes, Arena was taken up by the same corporation that assembled LGX
(assuming you are talking about what would today be called a Linux
Live CD).  Yeah, Adam Richter certainly was a man ahead of his time.
Pity Arena was discontinued; it has its problems, sure, but it's
lightweight, Gopher-compatible, and open-source, as a browser should
be.  Mosaic-CK as written is not too bad, but I feel that an
alternative might actually be viable.  Then again, I have a soft spot
for old software (not so much old hardware).  I mean, it must be
insane to use alpine as a mail client, lynx as a web/gopher client,
ttytter for tweeting, NCSA Mosaic when one needs "pretty pictures" on
the web, and ditto for GopherVR, and all this on a brand spanking new
MacBook Pro, but there I am, eh?  Actually, I skipped the craziest
part: I edit in TECO (yes, the old tape editor for the PDP-10),

Anyway, I don't know if it's insanity or nostalgia, but I feel that
Yggdrasil's vision is still as much of a possibility now as it was
thirteen years ago, and, for some even more insane reason, I'd love to
find out.  I don't feel like messing with Yggdrasil's plan; this thing
doesn't need today's bells and whistles on it---it just needs to be
stable and compatible with *simple* Web pages (Facebook is OUT).
Hypothetically speaking, of course.

-- Nick.

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