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% built agentically using Claude Code.

Download · Features · Keyboard Shortcuts · Themes · Building · Testing · Acknowledgments · License

System 6

Directory Browsing	Multi-Window & Search
Text Page & Clipboard	Dark Mode

System 7

Themes and Multiple Windows

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Download

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

Edition	Description	Memory	Download
Geomys	All features - 3 windows, 256-color themes, Gopher+	~2560KB	.dsk · .hqx
Geomys Lite	Core browsing - 2 windows, favorites, monochrome	~1024KB	.dsk · .hqx
Geomys Minimal	Only essentials - 1 window, smallest footprint	~512KB	.dsk · .hqx

Each edition is available as .dsk (800K floppy image) and .hqx (BinHex archive). 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 / RFC 4266 - all 19 Gopher item types with Gopher+ support
• Binary file downloads with progress dialog
• HTML rendering, CSO/ph queries, search dialogs, telnet handoff
• Content negotiation, interactive forms, search scoring (Gopher+)

Browsing

• Multi-window browsing (up to 3 windows, configurable with --max-windows)
• Address bar, back/forward/home, refresh, status bar
• Local page cache with 20 persistent favorites
• Find in Page, browsing history, Save Page As, Print

Display

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

System Integration

• MultiFinder and Apple Events (odoc/pdoc) support
• Notification Manager alerts for background loads (System 7)
• Optional AppleScript and Drag Manager via build flags
• Aligned with Apple Human Interface Guidelines

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
Get Info	Cmd+I	Gopher+ item attributes
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 14 built-in themes selectable from Options > Theme. Each window can have its own theme - changing the theme applies only to the active window, and new windows inherit the active window's 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.
TokyoNight Day / TokyoNight	Color	Based on the Tokyo Night color scheme.
Amber CRT	Color	Amber phosphor CRT aesthetic.
System 7	Color	Macintosh System 7 with CLUT accent colors.
Dracula	Color	Dark purple-accented palette.
Nord	Color	Arctic blue-tinted palette.
Green Screen	Color	Phosphor green on black CRT aesthetic.
Classic	Color	1990s web browser colors.
Monokai	Color	Dark warm palette with vivid accents.
Gruvbox	Color	Retro earthy palette with warm accents.

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	all features	~2560KB
lite	2	core browsing	~1024KB
minimal	1	only essentials	~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.