commit: 678fa014dae69f04e05c04f89e04423ce3a267b9
parent 72ede747ab3db8763bbb70e6d3d72ec5a4ad725f
Author: Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2021 10:01:43 +0200
visurf
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diff --git a/content/blog/visurf-announcement.md b/content/blog/visurf-announcement.md
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+---
+title: visurf, a web browser based on NetSurf
+date: 2021-09-11
+---
+
+I've started a new side project that I would like to share with you:
+[visurf][0]. visurf, or nsvi, is [NetSurf][1] frontend which provides
+vi-inspired key bindings and a lightweight Wayland UI with few dependencies.
+It's still a work-in-progress, and is not ready for general use yet. I'm
+letting you know about it today in case you find it interesting and want to
+help.
+
+[0]: https://sr.ht/~sircmpwn/visurf
+[1]: https://www.netsurf-browser.org
+
+NetSurf is a project which has been on my radar for some time. It is a small web
+browser engine, developed in C independently of the lineage of WebKit and Gecko
+which defines the modern web today. It mostly supports HTML4 and CSS2, plus only
+a small amount of HTML5 and CSS3. Its JavaScript support, while present, is very
+limited. Given the [epidemic of complexity in the modern web][2], I am pleased
+by the idea of a small browser, more limited in scope, which perhaps requires
+the cooperation of like-minded websites to support a pleasant experience.
+
+[2]: https://drewdevault.com/2020/03/18/Reckless-limitless-scope.html
+
+I was a [qutebrowser][2] user for a long time, and I think it's a great project
+given the constraints that it's working in — namely, the modern web. But
+I reject the modern web, and qute is just as much a behemoth of complexity as
+the rest of its lot. Due to stability issues, I finally ended up abandoning it
+for Firefox several months ago.
+
+[2]: https://qutebrowser.org
+
+The UI paradigm of qutebrowser's modal interface, inspired by vi, is quite nice.
+I tried to use Tridactyl, but it's a fundamentally crippled experience due to
+the limitations of Web Extensions on Firefox. Firefox has more problems besides
+— it may be somewhat more stable, but it's ultimately still an obscenely
+complex, monsterous codebase, owned by an organization which cares less and less
+about my needs with each passing day. A new solution is called for.
+
+Here's where visurf comes in. Here's a video of it in action:
+
+<video src="https://mirror.drewdevault.com/visurf.webm">
+ Your browser does not support HTML5 video, or webm. Here's a direct link:
+ <a href="https://mirror.drewdevault.com/visurf.webm">Watch this video</a>
+</video>
+
+I hope that this project will achieve these goals:
+
+1. Create a nice new web browser
+2. Drive interest in the development of NetSurf
+3. Encourage more websites to build with scope-constrained browsers in mind
+
+The first goal will involve fleshing out this web browser, and I could use
+your help. Please join #netsurf on irc.libera.chat, [browse the issue
+tracker][4], and [send patches][5] if you are able. Some features I have in mind
+for the future are things like interactive link selection, a built-in
+readability mode to simplify the HTML of articles around the web, and automatic
+redirects to take advantage of tools like [Nitter][6]. However, there's also
+more fundamental features to do, like clipboard support, command completion,
+even key repeat. There is much to do.
+
+[4]: https://todo.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/visurf
+[5]: https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/visurf-devel
+[6]: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter
+
+I also want to get people interested in improving NetSurf. I don't want to see
+it become a "modern" web browser, and frankly I think that's not even possible,
+but I would be pleased to see more people helping to improve its existing
+features, and expand them to include a reasonable subset of the modern web. I
+would also like to add Gemini support. I don't know if visurf will ever be taken
+upstream, but I have been keeping in touch with the NetSurf team while working
+on it and if they're interested it would be easy to see that through.
+Regardless, any improvements to visurf or to NetSurf will also improve the
+other.
+
+To support the third goal, I plan on overhauling [sourcehut's][3] frontend, and
+in the course of that work we will be building a new HTML+CSS framework (think
+Bootstrap) which treats smaller browsers like NetSurf a first-class target. The
+goal for this effort will be to provide a framework that allows for conservative
+use of newer browser features, with suitable fallbacks, with enough room for
+each website to express its own personality in a manner which is beautiful and
+useful on all manner of web browsers.
+
+[3]: https://sourcehut.org
