Titan - a New Gemini Browser

Gemini is a new protocol for the Internet, which I encountered near the beginning of May. It aims to fit a niche in between Gopher and HTML, being more powerful than Gopher, but intentionally more constrained than HTML. As someone who has their own Gopher hole, this was naturally appealing. As great as the minimalism of Gopher is, there's a reason that I tend to write most of my posts in HTML - inline links being a significant one. But it is also true that things like tracking cookies are a considerable drawback to HTML. Gemini harkens back to the early web, but with more power than Gopher, and with built-in TLS security.

One of the challenges I ran into, however, was finding a client. The main site lists a few, but I had difficulty getting the ones listed in early to mid May to run on Windows (things may have changed by the time you are reading this). Naturally, instead of doing the sensible thing and firing up my laptop that has Linux on it, I opened the spec document. Perusing it, I decided, "it can't be that difficult to write a basic client", and you know how the rest goes.

Despite the folly of starting any software project with, "it can't be that difficult", it turned out to not be that difficult. At least for the basics of sending a request, getting a response, and displaying that response.

Thus, I present Titan, a new Gemini browser that only within the past hour reached a level of, "I can browse with this and not realize time is passing." It's super early stages for it, but it offers a few features:

• Command line interface that takes inspiration from vi
• Written in Java, so it runs (almost) anywhere
• Forward/back navigation is implemented
• You can follow Gemini links conveniently
• Keeps output within the bounds of an 80x25 terminal
• Wraps lines unintelligently so you can see all the contents

Being that it is still super new, it also has quite a few limitations:

• Will occasionally crash on unexpected input (but works on most Gemini sites I've tried)
• Currently assumes your terminal is 80x25. If the height is > 25, the pagination will not be pretty
• Written in Java, so the command line interface is not as slick as it could be
• Server certificates are not validate (they are always trusted)
• Gemini error codes are not handled yet. It always assumes everything is 20 - Success, even when it isn't
• Line wrapping does not yet understand the concept of word boundaries

Some of these may be resolved by the time you read this; one of the goals of this blogs post is to have a post about it before going to sleep, to increase motivation to make Titan better.

Screenshots

Download

You can download tonight's snapshot from this link (15 KB). It will run with Java 8 or later. Configure your command line to have the dimensions 80x25 (width by height) for the best experience, and then run "java -jar TitanMay26.jar". I recommend viewing bookmark 1 first, as it's the main Gemini site.

Project Goals/Directions

This project is mainly driven by this looking like a fun, feasible side project. However, it may well continue receiving updates. In addition to addressing its limitations, current thoughts on direction include:

• Getting a site up on SourceHut, uploading the code, etc.
• Implementing bookmarks, beyond the two hard-coded bookmarks that already exist
• Adding an archive functionality, or "write" in vi parlance
• Potentially adding a graphical client. I considered JavaFX, with a download-as-Gemini, convert-to-HTML locally approach, and have successfully customized HTML link behavior in JavaFX previously. However, the idea of a vim-style client sounded more appealing in the end, so if a graphical version winds up happening, it will be Titan II.
• Potentially exploring porting to another language. Both due to command line limitations in Java (although JNI may help with that), and as it seems like a decent sized project for trying out a new or out-of-practice language.

Alternatives

If you are in the same boat I was, on Windows but wanting to surf Gemini, Twin Peaks is another Gemini server that can run on Windows, and it uses one of those newfangled graphical user interfaces. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like a good option for liftoff as well. There is also an extensive list of Gemini software, including browsers, at this Gemini site, but you need a Gemini browser to be able to view that page - a bit of a catch-22 if you don't have one yet.