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accessing_web_spaces

Accessing Web Spaces

Viewing the Various Webs on SDF

You know about the World-Wide Web. Do you remember Gopher? Have you heard about Gemini? Well, you can check them all out from your SDF account.

WWW

You already know how to do this because you are reading this wiki, probably on your favorite web browser, but from shell at SDF, you can surf the World-Wide Web with several command line programs as well. Some popular options are:

  • lynx: Lynx. This is a multi-purpse text-based web browser. From the SDF shell, you can issue the command:
lynx https://sdf.org
  • links. This is a lynx alternative, which is less actively updated. From the SDF shell, you can issue the command:
links https://sdf.org
  • elinks: [http://elinks.or.cz/|elinks]. This is a fork of links with more functionality. From the SDF shell, you can issue the command:
elinks https://sdf.org

Gopher

There are many ways to view gopherspace. The easiest for new users is one of the following:

Use Lynx

Lynx is the text web browser.
In addition to web browsing, Lynx is also capable of browsing gopherspace.
From the SDF shell, you can issue the command:

$ lynx gopher://sdf.org/

and Lynx will start up at sdf.org's gopher root menu.

Floodgap Gopher Proxy

Floodgap.com provides a public gopher proxy that you can view in your web browser at https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw.
For more information, see the proxy info page: https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/

Bombadillo

Made for browsing Gopherspace and Geminispace, too, you can use the homegrown (that is, made by an SDFer) 'bombadillo' browser

$ bombadillo gopher://sdf.org/

SDF Gopher Command

You can issue the gopher command, either from the SDF shell or from within the mkgopher command prompt.

Gemini

You can use either of these Gemini browsers on the cluster or in the MetaArray:

Bombadillo

As stated above for Gopher, bombadillo is for browsing Gopherspace and Geminispace, too. Type this at shell to use the homegrown 'bombadillo' browser:

$ bombadillo  gemini://sdf.org
Dealing with URL Fetch Errors

Because of the way bombadillo manages Gemini's TOFU security to protect you, if you get a “URL Fetch Error” from a site that you think you should be able to navigate to, you may need to purge your existing certificate and try again (if you are suspicious that the gemini site is compromised, maybe don't go?). For the example of gem.sdf.org renewing its certificate, in bombadillo, before navigating to gemini://gem.sdf.org, press [space] to enter command mode, which should put a : prompt at the bottom of the window. Enter:

p gem.sdf.org

…and press [return] to purge the old cert, and then [space]gemini://gem.sdf.org to navigate to the page, and it should load.

Amfora

Amfora is a for-gemini browser that is a little less 'texty' than bombadillo, rendering lists and headlines with a little more style.

at shell type

$ amfora gemini://sdf.org

Amfora will ask you if you want to continue to a site that you already have a (non-matching) certificate for, which will take care of the updating for you if you tell it to.

Diohsc

Additionally, on the metaarray, you can use diohsc (located at /meta/sdf/bin/diohsc)

Graphical Gemini Browsers

If you want to get into Gemini more, there are shell and graphical clients available for Linux, Windows, Mac, Android and IOS, you can look for them here: gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/software/

accessing_web_spaces.txt · Last modified: 2023/05/18 23:57 by peteyboy