_                _   _                 ____            _     _  
   / \   _ __   ___ | |_| |__   ___ _ __  |  _ \ _ __ ___ (_) __| |  
  / _ \ | '_ \ / _ \| __| '_ \ / _ \ '__| | | | | '__/ _ \| |/ _` |  
 / ___ \| | | | (_) | |_| | | |  __/ |    | |_| | | | (_) | | (_| |  
/_/   \_\_| |_|\___/ \__|_| |_|\___|_|    |____/|_|  \___/|_|\____| 
                                                                bbs
  XQTRs lair...

Best gopher client...
Posted on: 2023-12-15, by xqtr
#gopher, #client, #linux

I was searching for the best terminal, gopher client, at least 
for me. So i installed a bunch of them... which also uninstalled
 at the end, cause i had the one i was looking for from the 
 start, but i didn't know.

First of all... i have to specify, what i was looking for. I 
wanted a gopher client, that would be easy to install, to any 
machine, as simple as a "apt install" or "pip install" command. 
No compiling, downloading, finding missing packages etc.

Another feature, i would like, is to be easy to download files 
with it, follow links and even examine the source of a gopher 
page. A third requirement, but not a necessary one, would be to 
"render" color ANSI codes, cause some gopher sites have them and 
also i wanted to have, also ANSI colors in my gophlog.

I tried VF1, Bombadillo, phetch and some more. Some could render 
ANSI colors but had a very weird UI, others couldn't download 
files. So what i did chose?

Lynx! It's easy to install, as it is in the repos of every linux 
distro, it has an easy UI and key shortcuts, comes with help pages 
in case you forget the keystrokes, can download files and also can 
follow HTTP links which is a bonus and also view/download the 
source code of pages. It can't render ANSI colors, but this is not 
a big deal. I can live with it :)

So, in case you are looking for a gopher client, make sure to try 
Lynx first and then the others. I bet, you will return to Lynx as 
i did...