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#+TITLE: tinmop
* Name
tinmop - a client for gemini or pleroma social network
* Synopsis
tinmop [OPTION]...
* Description
This document assumes basic knowledge of how fediverse works. More
information about this topic can be found on the
official website ([[https://docs.joinmastodon.org/]]).
Tinmop proposes an extensible terminal interface to connect with
Pleroma social network or for the gemini protocol
gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/
* Options
Without options the program will start a terminal interface and will
try to connect to your instance (see [[Configuration]]) + -o, --open-gemini-url ARG :: Open gemini url
+ -m, --notify-mentions ARG :: Notify messages that mentions the user + -R, --reset-timeline-pagination ::
Reset the timeline pagination. By default the new toots are fetched
starting from the last one downloaded from the instance, this switch
will force the program to fetch the last message posted by users
+ -G, --gemini-client-only :: Start as gemini client only + -c, --check-follows-requests :: Checks for follow request at start
+ -e, --execute-script SCRIPT-FILE :: Execute a script file + -f, --folder FOLDER-NAME :: Start on that folder
+ -h, --help :: print program help and exit + -t, --timeline TIMELINE-NAME :: Start using this timeline
+ -u, --update-timeline :: Update the selected timeline
+ -v, --version :: Print program version and exit
* Usage
Users of Tinmop supposed to interact with the social network
using a terminal interface (TUI), The terminal screen layout is
sketched below:
#+NAME: screen-layout
#+BEGIN_SRC text
+---------------+---------------------------+
| | |
| tags window | thread windows |
| | |
| | modeline |
+---------------+---------------------------+
| | |
| conversations | main window |
| window | |
| | |
| | |
+---------------+---------------------------+
| command window |
+-------------------------------------------+
#+END_SRC
The screen is subdivided in five window:
- tag window :: shows the tag users subscribed for and available messages for each tag;
- threads window :: for a given timeline and folder (see [[Folders]]) show the discussions saved in user's local database;
- conversations window :: show the /private/ conversations the user is having with others;
- main window :: show the body of the message selected in the tag window or gemini page
- command window :: the window where the user instruct the software to perform commands
The main way to interact with the program is using the keyboard. By
default you can move focus to each window (except command window
that can not get focus explicitly) using *'M-arrow key'* (meta is *ALT* on many keyboards). There is a contextual help that appears
when the user input data that provide hints about commands and a
quick help window that can be shown by hitting ~?~ (if this
keybinding has not been customized).
** Command window keys
The command window has a few hardcoded command keys to interact
with it:
- the *left* and *right* arrow keys move the cursor;
- the key *home* and *end* move the cursor to the start and end of
the input respectively;
- *canc* and *backspace* delete the next and previous character
respectively;
- the *new line* (often called *enter* key) send the input to the
program;
- *C-k* (that is: "press 'control' and while pressed press 'k') /kills/ (deletes) the text from the cursor position to the end of
the input previously typed;
- press *M-left* and *M-right* (*left alt* and *left* or *right*
arrow together) to browse pages of the suggestion window; the
suggestion window is a window that holds a previously inputted
data that are compatible with the string the user is typing into
the command window;
- if suggestions are gemini URI press *TAB* to input the current
selected suggestion;
- if suggestion window is *not* rendered, pressing *up* and *down*
arrow keys will cycle through input history, if there is not a
suggestion window rendered pressing *up* and *down* will scroll
on suggestions.
** Folders
A folder is an object to groups messages for each timeline an
arbitrary number of folders can be created, when the last message of
a folder is deleted the folder is deleted as well.
* Configuration
The configuration of tinmop is based on text files but there are
available two different kind with different syntax and scope.
- a key-value text files used to configure the access credential to
server and visual theme of the program (simple configuration);
- common lisp source code. Used to write module (AKA plugin) and to
configure keybindings to interact with the software.
The distribution of this software comes with a bunch of pre-backed
configuration files but user is expected to write a simple file with
their credential to log into the server.
** Simple configuration
This is a simple file with each entry in a single line that look like this:
#+NAME: simple file example
#+BEGIN_SRC text
# a line starting with a '#' is a comment
# a file can be included in another with this directive:
# use "shared.conf"
# The server instance name
server = server address
# your username
username = username
#+END_SRC
Not incidentally the information in the example above are the
absolute minimum the user has to provide before starts the program
and connect to pleroma (to use tinmop as a gemini browser only an
empty file will suffice): the name you chose when you made the
account on the server and the address of the server.
As you can see a line starting with a *#* is considered comment and
skipped by the program
The file with this credential are confidential and must be put into
user's home directory under the path ~$HOME/.local/share/tinmop/main.conf~. Probably the directory ~tinmop~ does not exists on user system, if it does not exists must
be created manually.
If the program was installed correctly two other files with simple
semantics are located in your system wide configuration directory
(usually ~/etc/tinmop/~), please check these files for more
information, as they are extensively commented.
Is worth mentioning again that, without an user configuration file,
the program can be used as gemini client.
** Lisp program
These files contains Common lisp (see [[https://common-lisp.net/]])
source code. And are used both as a way to configure the program
and to write module for tinmop itself.
These files are the only way to configure program's keybindings:
sequence of pressing button to fire command commands (do not worry
it is not too difficult!).
These files must be a valid Common Lisp program to allow the
program to even starts. Again this is actual source code that is
loaded end executed by the main program; be careful, do not copy
and paste code from untrusted sources as this could results in a *severe* security damage.
Again in the configuration directory there is a (commented) file
named ~init.lisp~ that user can use as their starting point to
write their files. A custom init file, or other module files, must
be located into the directory ~$HOME/.local/share/tinmop/~.
However there is no need to write their own init file if user is
happy with the provided one by the package maintainers.
* First time start
After the configuration the program can be started but we are not
ready to join the fediverse yet because tinmop need to be /trusted/ by
the server. Just follows the instruction on screen to register the
application with your instance. This procedure should be followed
once: when the program starts for the first time (but please note
that there must be a file with valid credentials available).
There is no additional steps to follow to connect to gemspace,
instead.
* Gempub support
Tinmop maintains a gempub library scanning a directory on your
file system (library directory); the library directory path can be
set using the configuration directive:
#+BEGIN_SRC text
gempub.directory.library = /absolute/path/to/your/gempub/library
#+END_SRC
the default value is ~$XDG_DATA_HOME~ (usually something like ~$HOME/.local/share/tinmop/~).
Using *'M-g g l'* the library can be inspected using a simple query
language (similar to SQL) that search in the metadata of the gempub
files, example of query follows:
#+BEGIN_SRC text
where author like "calvino" and published < "1980"
where author like "cal%" or published = "1980"
#+END_SRC
Valid search keys are:
- title;
- author;
- language;
- description;
- publish-date;
- revision-date;
- published;
- copyright.
You can use ~< > = != <= >= like~ operators for comparison and the
two logical operator ~and~ and ~or~, the character ~%~ act like a
wildcard and means: /'any sequence of character'/.
Note that the right hand side of the operator must be wrapped in
quotes.
After the search is performed a window with the results is shown,
selecting an item of this window will open the gempub and will add
all its table of contents on the tour mode, so that the book could
be browsed.
For more information on tour mode see below or use *'C-h A <enter> tour mode'*.
* Tour mode
Tinmop maintains a queue of links that can be then visited by the
user, this queue is called *tour*.
There are two ways to add a link to the tour:
- when a link window is open and focused pressing *t* will start a
prompt for link indices to be saved in the tour; the prompt expect
a simple, comma or space separated, list of indices or index range, index
range is a couple of index separated by a dash, example below:
#+BEGIN_SRC text
1 2 5 8-12
#+END_SRC
The string above will save the link index number 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9,
10, 11, 12 to the tour.
The other way to add links to the tour is using the command *'gemlog-add-unread-posts-tour'* (default keychord: *'M-g s t a'*)
that will add all the unread posts to the tour.
There are a few more useful command to manipulate the tour:
- next-tour-link :: (*'M-t t'* or just 't' if a gemini window is focused)
follows the next link in the tour;
- show-tour-links :: (*'M-t s'* or just *'T'* if a gemini window is focused)
shows the contents of the tour in a link window
- clean-all-tour :: (*'M-t c'*)
- shuffle-tour :: (*'M-t S'*) shuffle the contents of the tour
* How to get more help
For help with pleroma visit the pleroma website:
https://pleroma.social/
For information about gemini:
$ tinmop -o gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space
The program has an inline help (default binding for help is "?")
You can search the help strings with a command (default: "C-h a").
Moreover you can have some useful hint at the program web page:
[https://www.autistici.org/interzona/tinmop/]
* BUGS
There are many, totally unknown, hiding in the code! Please help the
programmer to nail them using the
[[https://notabug.org/cage/tinmop/issues/][issue tracker]].
* Contributing
There is always need for help, you can join the developer, sending
patches or translating the UI to your favourite language.
Just point your browser to the
[[https://notabug.org/cage/tinmop/][code repository]].
See also the file CONTRIBUTE.org
** Debug mode
If you uncomment the line:
#+BEGIN_SRC lisp
;;(push :debug-mode *features*)
#+END_SRC
The program will be compiled in ~debug-mode~ this means that a lot
of diagnostic output will be appended to a file named ~tinmop.log~
in the directory ~$HOME/.local/share/tinmop/~.
* Files
- ~$HOME/.local/share/tinmop/db.sqlite3~: the program database
- ~$HOME/.local/share/tinmop/client~: the program credentials to connect with the instance *keep private!*
- ~$HOME/.local/share/tinmop/tinmop.log~: this file is created only for debugging and should not be enabled in binary package distribution (see [[Contributing]]).
- ~/etc/tinmop/default-theme.conf~: default visual style
- ~/etc/tinmop/shared.conf~: some default configuration not related to themes
- ~/etc/tinmop/init.lisp~: system wide configuration
- ~$HOME/.config/tinmop/init.lisp~: user configuration
- ~$HOME/.config/tinmop/main.conf~: user configuration (simple format)
* Privacy
The author of this software collects no user data information with
this software.
But this software is a client to connect and interact to one or more
remote computer. So potentially it could share a lot of information
with other actors but just after the user allowed it to do so.
It is the user responsibility to checks the privacy conditions of the
instance this software connect to.
By default, pressing "!" will contact the remote service located at:
"gemini://houston.coder.town/search".
Moreover launching ~quick_quicklisp.sh~ will contact
[[https://www.quicklisp.org/]], check the
[[https://beta.quicklisp.org/quicklisp.lisp][quicklisp sources]] for
details.
* Acknowledgment
My deep thanks to the folks that provided us with wonderful SBCL and
Common lisp libraries.
In particular i want to thanks the authors of the libraries Croatoan and Tooter
for their help when I started to develop this program.
There are more people i borrowed code and data from, they are mentioned
in the file LINCENSES.org
This program is was born also with the help of CCCP: "Collettivo Computer
Club Palermo".
Also thanks to "barbar" for testing of the installation scripts.
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