Comment by 🚀 stack

Gofer looks good on a terminal. Gemini not so much. Disapointed.

Dec 12 · 1 day ago

Poll Results

1. GUI

███████████████████▁▁▁▁▁ 81%

2. TUI

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3. CLI

██▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 10%

52 votes were cast.

16 Later Comments ↓

Is Emacs running in GTK mode TUI or GUI? 🤔

I'm using github.com/dimkr/gplaces, I guess it's "CLI" and not "TUI"

IMHO, CLI = run in terminal with parameters to load a single page and immediately exit upon output, TUI = run in terminal once to load and navigate many pages in succession

CLI is getting more votes than I'd expected! One is mine, I use diohsc almost exclusively. I'm interpreting CLI to include line-based interfaces, while anything using curses or similar is TUI.

@mbays It overlaps. A line-based interface combined with number shortcuts for following links is in-between. Another, maybe better distinction would be mouse- or touch-controlled pixel interface vs. keyboard-controlled character interface.

Lagrange for the win.

I'm happily using Lagrange for now, but I'm working on my own GUI client too.

I've read in another thread, somebody saying analogously, that he doesn't understand, why somebody uses Gemini at all when using a fancy GUI client. You could directly use a web browser and browse the www. Gemini can be used well with a small TUI client and it's designed that way, just like Gopher. I can only agree with that.

@fab The GUI clients seem far less bloated than your average normal browser, though. When a GUI is simplistic enough, say windows 3.1 style, it really isn't that bad. Of course I'm mostly using Lagrange on Android so far, and I find it to be a fine mix of simple and a good and readable GUI without being too cluttered. I found Deedum to look more simplistic, but Lagrange easier to navigate with. The real problem to come from GUIs is an overfocus on fancy eye candy and such instead of just being concise, simple to read, and small. I don't think having some 'eyecandy' stuff in a GUI is bad, but it shouldn't come by default and should be something you download later only if you want it. (I'd really only have it on a machine used for leisure, and I always turn off animations, it saves time. I use Linux Mint and I have this clear blue glass Aero theme, and that's all I really care for.) I find Lagrange to be a nice amount of simple without being too cluttered or maze like. I'll make sure to check out some TUI/CLI clients sometime though, it seems like they'd be interesting to use. They'd also feel closer to days of things such as Usenet, I'd imagine.

@The_Jackal You are right that even the GUI Gemini/Gopher/Finger clients are far less bloated than a full blown web browser. And not everyone uses a tiling Window Manager to use the mouse as little as possible, like I do. For these people a GUI client may be viable. But for me it's a waste of resources and a mouseless TUI client is far easier to navigate. And in my opinion it's one of the design goals of Gopher/Gemini/Finger to be easily usable from the commandline.

i try to use lagrange for even http pages, i use it with http to gemini proxy.

whatever opens sort of in lagrange, i am satisfied with that.

only whatever not opens, i run in a web browser.

and i do use lagrange because i open looooots of tabs and windows.

i tend to sort tabs relevant to the same topics in the same window.

then i distribute those lagrange windows to different workspaces.

and since lagrange remembers workspace in x11, i can after restart get the same state of windows on different x11 workspaces.

I use all three at various times. My preferred Android client is deedum. On some of my computers I primarily run Kristall, and on others I primarily run Offpunk. I also have a Bash alias for one-off browsing and archiving documents, which gets some use across all of my devices.

@fab Oh, of course. That's a nice design goal as well, and I don't think the making of GUI clients would hinder that much. I could also imagine navigating being quicker after getting used to keyboard in a terminal more. I personally like using a mouse more though, and if I had a terminal based system would probably want something where I can use a mouse like normal with right clicking and copy and pasting, but also able to just hide the mouse in the corner and use it as normal if I wanted.

There is no good reason for worse keyboard controls in a GUI, except that GUI users and coders love that dumb mouse...

@stack Not once did I argue for worse keyboard controls in a GUI, though. You should be able to navigate with anything used to control your computer. I feel like having a hotkey to swap from short cuts on the desktop and the task bar on a simplistic, say, cinnamon type desktop and pressing enter to 'click' things could be fine. That would still raise the question of how well you'd navigate other GUI applications however.

Original Post

Do you browse the Geminispace with a GUI, TUI, or CLI client? — CLI = run in terminal with parameters to load a single page and immediately and automatically exit upon output, TUI = run in terminal once to load and navigate many pages in succession