Gopher Client 17+
Charles Childers
Designed for iPad
-
- Free
Screenshots
Description
"gopher n. 1. Any of various short tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Geomyidae, of North America. 2. (Amer. colloq.) Native or inhabitant of Minnesota: the Gopher State. 3. (Amer. colloq.) One who runs errands, does odd-jobs, fetches or delivers documents for office staff. 4. (computer tech.) software following a simple protocol for burrowing through a TCP/IP internet."
- From RFC 1436 describing Gopher
Way back in the early 1990's, Gopher was a major part of the internet. Over the years it has waned, but there are still quite a few Gopher servers running.
This is is a modern Gopher browser for iOS. Built from the ground up, it lets you access the wealth of data available via Gopher from your favorite devices.
What this offers:
- Clean, browser style user interface
- Access to Gopher servers
- Supports text files, images, directories
- Opens WWW links in Safari
- Supports Veronica-2, Contrition, and other search systems for searching the Gopherspace
- Bookmarks
- Adjustable text size & optional "reflow" of text documents for improved readability
Limitations:
- This does not support binary files other than images
- This does not support the non-standard Gopher+ extensions, or CSO selectors
What’s New
Version 2018.8
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
This is a small update that improves the display of menus that contain non-standard document types.
Ratings and Reviews
Very nice
This Gopher client appears to be one of the few, if not the only available on the App Store. There isn’t much to compare it to. It is great to be able to experience Gopherspace, but navigation can be cumbersome. When loading a text post, going back, loading another text post, then going back again, then once again going back, the first text post then loads a second time. Each previously-loaded text post will reload when attempting to go back to the parent directory. Otherwise, this app is great!
Works but lacking in UX
If you just care about accessing Gopher servers then this’ll work for you. However it has some frustrating UX/design decisions that could likely easily be addressed:
1) landscape view does not account for newer phones with notches on the screen. If you few pages horizontally (usually formats better than reflowed portrait mode) your text will be covered by the notch.
2) Swiping and gestures are not supported. Avoiding having to press navigation buttons is a huge deal in usability and comfort. I expect it in programs like this as much as I do in a web browser.
Apart from those two frustrations this is a great way to experience the gopherspace.
Excellent
This is a nice Gopher client that is easy on the eyes and simple to use. I suggest adjusting the text size in settings to match your screen in portrait mode. The ability to display images is terrific, but I can’t seem to download other file types. Add that feature and it will be perfect.
App Privacy
The developer, Charles Childers, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Charles Childers
- Size
- 1.6 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
-
- iPhone
- Requires iOS 9.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 9.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 9.0 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 11.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
-
English
- Age Rating
- 17+ Unrestricted Web Access
- Copyright
- © 2017 - 2018, Charles Childers
- Price
- Free