Geomys

Geomys is a Gopher browser for classic 68000 Macintosh computers. It supports monochrome and 256 colors, System 6 and 7, multi-window browsing, themes, favorites, Gopher+ protocol, file downloads, and keyboard navigation.

This project was 100% vibe coded using Claude Code.

<p align="center"> <a href="#download">Download</a> · <a href="#features">Features</a> · <a href="#keyboard-shortcuts">Keyboard Shortcuts</a> · <a href="#themes">Themes</a> · <a href="#building">Building</a> · <a href="#testing">Testing</a> · <a href="#acknowledgments">Acknowledgments</a> · <a href="#license">License</a> </p>

System 6

| | | |:---:|:---:| | | | | Directory Browsing | Multi-Window & Search | | | | | Text Page & Edit Menu | Dark Mode & Favorites |

System 7

| | |:---:| | | | System 7 with 256 color and multi-window |

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Download

Pre-built binaries are available on the Releases page and Macintosh Garden:

| Edition | Description | Memory | Download | |---------|-------------|--------|----------| | Geomys | Full build — 3 windows, all features including 256-color | ~2560KB | .dsk · .hqx | | Geomys Lite | Recommended for Mac Plus — 2 windows, core features | ~1024KB | .dsk · .hqx | | Geomys Minimal | Bare-bones — 1 window, smallest binary | ~512KB | .dsk · .hqx |

Each edition is available as .dsk (800K floppy image) and .hqx (BinHex archive). No build toolchain required — just download and run. See docs/BUILD.md for custom builds.

Requirements

• Macintosh Plus or later (4MB RAM, 68000 CPU)
• System 6.0.8 or System 7 with MacTCP
• 256-color themes require Mac II or later with Color QuickDraw

Features

Protocol

• RFC 1436 and RFC 4266 — all 19 Gopher item types
• Gopher+ — Get Info, content negotiation, search scoring, interactive forms
• Binary file downloads with progress dialog and image format detection
• HTML tag-stripping renderer, CSO/ph phonebook queries, search with dialog input
• Telnet handoff with connection dialog and app launching (System 7)

Browsing

• Multi-window browsing (3 windows default; increase with --max-windows on systems with more RAM)
• Address bar, back/forward/home, stop/go/refresh, status bar
• Local page cache for instant back/forward navigation
• 20 persistent favorites with menu quick-access
• Find in Page, browsing history, Save Page As, Print

Display

• 9 built-in themes with 256-color support on System 7 (create your own)
• 8 fonts with independent size selection (9, 10, 12, 14)
• Double-buffered rendering with SICN/cicn icons
• CP437 character set and Unicode glyph rendering

System Integration

• Notification Manager alerts for background page loads (System 7)
• MultiFinder, Apple Events (odoc/pdoc), stationery pad support
• Optional: AppleScript and Drag Manager (available via custom build flags)
• Aligned with Apple Human Interface Guidelines (1992)

Keyboard Shortcuts

| Action | Keys | Notes | |--------|------|-------| | Back | Cmd+[ | Previous page | | Forward | Cmd+] | Next page | | Refresh | Cmd+R | Reload current page | | Stop | Cmd+. | Cancel loading | | Open | Cmd+L | Focus address bar | | Find | Cmd+F | Search current page | | Find Again | Cmd+G | Next match | | New Window | Cmd+N | Open new browser window | | Close Window | Cmd+W | Close active window | | Save Page As | Cmd+S | Save as text file | | Print | Cmd+P | Print current page | | Add Favorite | Cmd+D | Bookmark current page | | Manage Favorites | Cmd+B | Open bookmark manager | | Copy | Cmd+C | Copy selection to clipboard | | Undo | Cmd+Z | Undo address bar edit | | Scroll up/down | Arrow keys | One row at a time | | Scroll page | Page Up/Down | One page at a time | | Top/Bottom | Home/End | Jump to start or end | | Select link | Up/Down (content) | Navigate links with keyboard | | Follow link | Return | Open selected link | | Cycle focus | Tab | Switch between address bar and content | | Quit | Cmd+Q | Quit Geomys |

Themes

Geomys ships with 9 built-in themes selectable from Options > Theme:

| Theme | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | Light | Mono | White on black, default. Works on all systems. | | Dark | Mono | Black on white. Works on all systems. | | Solarized Light / Dark | Color | Ethan Schoonover's Solarized palette. | | Tokyo Night Light / Dark | Color | Based on the Tokyo Night color scheme. | | Green Screen | Color | Phosphor green on black CRT aesthetic. | | Classic | Color | 1990s web browser colors. | | Platinum | Color | Mac OS 8/9 Appearance Manager inspired. |

Mono themes work on all systems including the Mac Plus. Color themes require a Mac II or later with Color QuickDraw (detected automatically at runtime).

To create custom themes or learn how the theme engine works, see the full Theme Guide.

Building

Requires the Retro68 cross-compilation toolchain. Build it from source (68k only):

git clone https://github.com/autc04/Retro68.git
cd Retro68 && git submodule update --init && cd ..
mkdir Retro68-build && cd Retro68-build
bash ../Retro68/build-toolchain.bash --no-ppc --no-carbon --prefix=$(pwd)/toolchain

Then build Geomys:

./scripts/build.sh

Build Presets

Geomys supports fully customizable builds. Three presets cover common configurations:

| Preset | Windows | Features | Memory | |--------|---------|----------|--------| | full | 3 | everything | ~2560KB | | lite | 2 | core browsing, themes, clipboard, HTML, telnet | ~1024KB | | minimal | 1 | themes, clipboard, styles, HTML, telnet | ~512KB |

The default build uses the full preset. Select a preset with --preset:

./scripts/build.sh --preset minimal    # stripped, for 1MB Macs
./scripts/build.sh --preset full       # everything, 3 windows

Individual features can be toggled with --feature / --no-feature flags. Presets are applied first, then individual flags override:

./scripts/build.sh --preset lite --gopher-plus --styles
./scripts/build.sh --max-windows 2 --color --no-cache

See docs/BUILD.md for the complete list of build flags, feature details, memory costs, and examples.

Memory and Multi-Window

On System 7 with MultiFinder, Geomys requests a memory partition via the SIZE resource. Default allocations:

| Preset | Preferred | Minimum | |--------|-----------|---------| | Full | 2560KB | 1536KB | | Lite | 1024KB | 768KB | | Minimal | 512KB | 256KB |

Large Gopher directories (1000+ items) use significant memory (~300KB per directory). With multiple windows open, the second and third windows may show fewer items if heap space runs low. This is normal on a 4MB Mac.

To increase memory on machines with more RAM: select the Geomys application in Finder, choose File > Get Info, and increase the "Application Memory Size" field. No rebuild required.

Testing

• System 6 (monochrome): Snow emulator (v1.3.1) with Mac Plus ROM and System 6.0.8 SCSI hard drive image. DaynaPORT SCSI/Link Ethernet emulation for MacTCP networking.
• System 7 (color): Basilisk II emulator with Macintosh IIci ROM and System 7.6.1. Color QuickDraw support for 256-color themes and multi-window testing.

Acknowledgments

• Claude Code by Anthropic
• Retro68 by Wolfgang Thaller
• Snow emulator
• wallops by joshua stein — MacTCP wrapper (tcp.c/tcp.h), DNS resolution (dns.c/dns.h), and utility functions. ISC license.
• subtext by joshua stein — Additional utility and networking code. ISC license.
• Flynn — Sibling Telnet client project and architectural reference. ISC license.
• University of Illinois Board of Trustees — TCP networking code (tcp.c, 1990-1992)

License

ISC License. See LICENSE for full details.

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Note: The GitHub repository is a read-only mirror. Please open issues and pull requests on Codeberg.