7 ms·

Gothub: Alternative front-end for GitHub written with Go

66 points by popcalc 3y ago

popcalc 3y ago
I need this because the new mobile-first Github design doesn't want to take up more than half the horizontal width on my Macbook's display. I have to zoom to 200%, at which point there is little content vertically, strain my eyes, or use the macOS system zoom to properly read anything. To exemplify this, here's the same markdown from Gitea's home page on both Github and Gothub at the lowest browser zoom (Firefox) that fills the entire viewport. Github: https://files.catbox.moe/pwvb3s.png https://files.catbox.moe/pwvb3s.png Gothub: https://files.catbox.moe/66idln.png https://files.catbox.moe/66idln.png
- mort96 3y ago
  FYI, your SSL cert isn't trusted on iOS...
andrewfromx 3y ago
you had me at "No JavaScript - pure HTML and CSS goodness"
1MachineElf 3y ago
I wonder if this is related to Game of Trees (Got), the Git-compatible VCS developed for OpenBSD developers: https://gameoftrees.org/ https://gameoftrees.org/
- masklinn 3y ago
  Why would an alternative github frontend be in any way related to a git-compatible VCS?
  - 1MachineElf 3y ago
    Maybe because the names both start with "Got" and both are related to Git.
alexlur 3y ago
Anyone got a screenshot?
- danpalmer 3y ago
  Here's an example repo: https://gh.bloatcat.tk/microsoft/vscode https://gh.bloatcat.tk/microsoft/vscode
  - viraptor 3y ago
    Going into any of the directories there shows no contents unfortunately.
    - AryaKiran 3y ago
      ex-maintainer of gothub, github changed their UI to make it require JS on the directory view route which meant we have to move from scraping to iirc fetching the data from a json endpoint or something.
      - zzo38computer 3y ago
        The JSON data is included with the HTML. I did write a program that will parse some of it, but even then they sometimes changed a few things and causing the program to not work.
hsfzxjy 3y ago
Any option to turn on Light Mode?
jitl 3y ago
Here’s an online instance in the US showing the VS Code repo: https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode I get frustrated by pull request tab performance on real Github - those turbolinks are buggy as hell. But I can’t see myself using Gothub because it doesn’t support PRs at all!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- masklinn 3y ago
  For PRs reviewable.io is what I’d like to use instead of github, but while understandable the giant button it puts on the PRs makes it difficult to use as a personal secret frontend without company buy-in. Shame, because just the tracking of comments which doesn’t suck would be a boon, to see nothing of seeing what’s actually changed since the last review beyond “this file has changed”
  - fahhem 3y ago
    Thanks for the compliment masklinn! Paying users can turn off the button on PR descriptions (and free users have some flexibility on where it goes). I hope you understand we can't provide the service free and secretly :D
- codeapprove 3y ago
  Shameless plug but if you're looking for an alternative UI for GitHub PRs, you may want to try CodeApprove (https://codeapprove.com https://codeapprove.com) Frustrations with GitHub's PR performance, limitations, and overall clunky UX are the main reasons people choose to use CodeApprove instead.
- 38 3y ago
  file list doesn't work at all: https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/ma... https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src
trumbitta2 3y ago
I was kind of expecting it to be riddled with baroque embellishments, gargoyles, and bats.
- mseepgood 3y ago
  Gothic embellishments (the Baroque period was a couple of centuries later)
- AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
  If I play only Sisters of Mercy and Type O Negative while browsing gothub, is that close enough?
- omgmajk 3y ago
  I too hoped for a gothic github.
rywalker 3y ago
Pronounced "goat-hub" ?
- pizzafeelsright 3y ago
  Goth-ube, obviously.
  - toastal 3y ago
    That would make a fine dessert.
    - benatkin 3y ago
      I'm thinking cheesecake, like this place in the Hillsdale Mall on the Peninsula.
maw 3y ago
What's the point of this? Github's UI seems reasonably well done and reasonably responsive to me. And it's not like you're removing a dependency, which is defensible. I'm probably missing something here - what? Now, if there were something like this but for Gitlab, whose UI is distractingly slow and just plain weird in a lot of ways, then I'd be very interested.
- flkenosad 3y ago
  Well it's open source, that's a biggie.
  - dewey 3y ago
    It's not a GitHub alternative, it's a different frontend for GitHub.
    - toastercat 3y ago
      Their point still stands. If Github makes a change you don't like to their UI tomorrow, there's nothing you can do. An open-source frontend provides an opportunity for you to customize the way you browse Github.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 3y ago
  I see it is an instance thing like invidious or nitter which might be valuable for browsing github because it obscures you from microsoft but that makes it read-only because the moment you identify yourself you lose that benefit. That's assuming you can even do that on this. Basically I don't know because I never browse github. I am there for read-write purposes.
- lurtbancaster 3y ago
  A page such as this[1] requires javascript to be enabled to be viewable on github. Viewing any and all "/blob/" pages on github requires javascript to be enabled now. It didn't used to be this way ~1 year ago but github is slowly making javascript necessary on many pages for some annoying reason. I could set up a redirect to the '/raw/' pages but then the syntax highlighting is gone. The same page is perfectly viewable over plain html on gothub[2] though. Github also seems to be hiding their "Assets" (binaries et al) on the "/releases" page for some projects behind javascript(especially older versions).[3] Something else that wasn't the case about ~1.5 years ago. Would be great if gothub could unshackle the links to those as well[4], but that doesn't seem to work at the moment[5] . This project appears to be a more performant(measurably so), more privacy friendly(as Microsoft won't have a record of your interest in certain projects) alternative front-end for "non logged in" github users. I like it, but it still needs work. [1] https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255ae1495ba2da84517dce6081/src/os.h#L56-L75 https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255ae14... [2] https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255ae1495ba2da84517dce6081/src/os.h#L56-L75 https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255... [3] https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases [4] https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mikf/gallery-dl/releases https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mikf/gallery-dl/releases [5] https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/74 https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/74
Sujeto 3y ago
GitHub puns are easy https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/githop/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/githop/
codeapprove 3y ago
I love seeing projects like this! In general I have always been extremely impressed with the coverage of GitHub's APIs. They're generally well designed, well documented, and available publicly around the same time as a new feature is announced. Which makes it possible to develop alternative UIs like this that aren't complete hacks. Very few other platforms have this type of coverage! I've used the GitHub APIs on CodeApprove (https://codeapprove.com https://codeapprove.com) to replace the part of GitHub that bothered me the most: Pull Requests.
henriquecm8 3y ago
In Gothub the only theme is dark.
38 3y ago
the real problem with GitHub is the awful issue pages. For example look at this: https://github.com/golang/go/issues/21498 https://github.com/golang/go/issues/21498 they put this randomly in the middle of the page: > 456 hidden items > Load more you click it, then you get this: > 396 hidden items > Load more seriously, what is this? how is this better than pagination? with pagination, I can see the first page, and if I want to also see the last page (which this UI seems to be trying to do) I just click the link to the last page. what is so awful about pagination that we have ended up with this horrible excuse for a forum?
- bastardoperator 3y ago
  I personally don't want to go back and forth between pages when they include hundreds of comments. Inline loading of comments is the much better, smarter alternative. The last comments are loaded, you just gotta hit the page down key. The only thing that isn't loaded are the middle comments, and all you have to do there is tap load more comments link. Yeah, a company that does over a billion API requests per day, they're not going to load 500 comments on a page, if you need that and I don't think you do, use the API, it has pagination...
  - benatkin 3y ago
    I agree with you. As someone who agrees with the other thread that the new pages for displaying code are a step backwards, I think that the issue pages are quite good.
  - 38 3y ago
    > Inline loading of comments is the much better, smarter alternative. with pagination, each page has a fixed number of comments, which means an expected amount of memory/CPU/network transfer. with inline loading, everything is loaded into the current page, which means the CPU and memory use essentially become unbounded, so the more you load the slower it goes. > The last comments are loaded, you just gotta hit the page down key. that's not how GitHub works. as I mentioned in the previous comment, this hidden comments are in the MIDDLE of the page, so page down doesn't make any sense here. > The only thing that isn't loaded are the middle comments, and all you have to do there is tap load more comments link. this only loads 60 comments, so in the example page I linked you'd need to: 1. click load more 2. scroll down until you find the end of the 60 new comments and then repeat this process 7 more times. with pagination, the page links are always at the bottom, not randomly in the middle of the page, making for faster navigation. > Yeah, a company that does over a billion API requests per day, they're not going to load 500 comments on a page no one is asking them to do that. that's what the current system allows for. I am asking for pagination, which would split all the comments across pages, which would only be loaded on request.
oefrha 3y ago
Calling this an alternative front end for GitHub sets all the wrong expectations. At least at the moment it’s just a very incomplete file browser for files on GitHub, and even the directory view doesn’t work — if you want to see a non-top-level file you have to manually construct the URL. There’s no commit view, no log view, no blame view, etc., and forget about search or issues.
defanor 3y ago
Directory listing appears to be broken: I see pages without content when trying to browse directories [1]; observed on a few instances I tried, with a few repositories. The code div is restricted to something like 50 characters, leading to line wrapping, if the browser window is at a width allowing about 150 characters; huge and unnecessary margins there, particularly awkward for code. Looks like it may be nice and useful though, especially if it had a working search on top of browsing: GitHub's new search is tiring to use for skimming a new codebase now, and cloning large repositories for such skimming is inconvenient. [1] https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/ma...
- smarx007 3y ago
  This seems to be due to [1], so the project is hardly demoable now. [1]: https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/124 https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/124
  - blurker 3y ago
    Ahh as someone who has built several scraping applications, I feel their pain. It's a constant battle to keep your scraper working.
bastardoperator 3y ago
No thank you, this isn't a front end replacement, it's just reading the API and displaying stuff in half ass kind of way.
thiht 3y ago
Oof, that doesn't look good. And it doesn't even work, when you click on a folder in the file listing it doesn't show anything. And if after that you click on "Back to xxx" you get an error that tries to be funny: > Someone pushed to production. Just kidding, that's probably not what happened Don't try to be funny in error messages, this is not helpful. https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/main https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/ma...
zzo38computer 3y ago
There is some problem: - It does not display the contents of subdirectories if one is selected. - Perhaps, add a slash at the end of directory names so that you can tell that it is a subdirectory more easily. - Is it possible to list the available branches, issues pull requests, forks, etc? - Can the style be changed? I don't like it to use its own width instead of using the window size.
Brian_K_White 3y ago
a front end for a front end...

66 points by popcalc 3y ago

I need this because the new mobile-first Github design doesn't want to take up more than half the horizontal width on my Macbook's display. I have to zoom to 200%, at which point there is little content vertically, strain my eyes, or use the macOS system zoom to properly read anything. To exemplify this, here's the same markdown from Gitea's home page on both Github and Gothub at the lowest browser zoom (Firefox) that fills the entire viewport. Github: https://files.catbox.moe/pwvb3s.png https://files.catbox.moe/pwvb3s.png Gothub: https://files.catbox.moe/66idln.png https://files.catbox.moe/66idln.png

mort96 3y ago
FYI, your SSL cert isn't trusted on iOS...

andrewfromx 3y ago

you had me at "No JavaScript - pure HTML and CSS goodness"

1MachineElf 3y ago

I wonder if this is related to Game of Trees (Got), the Git-compatible VCS developed for OpenBSD developers: https://gameoftrees.org/ https://gameoftrees.org/

masklinn 3y ago
Why would an alternative github frontend be in any way related to a git-compatible VCS?
- 1MachineElf 3y ago
  Maybe because the names both start with "Got" and both are related to Git.

alexlur 3y ago

Anyone got a screenshot?

danpalmer 3y ago
Here's an example repo: https://gh.bloatcat.tk/microsoft/vscode https://gh.bloatcat.tk/microsoft/vscode
- viraptor 3y ago
  Going into any of the directories there shows no contents unfortunately.
  - AryaKiran 3y ago
    ex-maintainer of gothub, github changed their UI to make it require JS on the directory view route which meant we have to move from scraping to iirc fetching the data from a json endpoint or something.
    - zzo38computer 3y ago
      The JSON data is included with the HTML. I did write a program that will parse some of it, but even then they sometimes changed a few things and causing the program to not work.

hsfzxjy 3y ago

Any option to turn on Light Mode?

jitl 3y ago

Here’s an online instance in the US showing the VS Code repo: https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode I get frustrated by pull request tab performance on real Github - those turbolinks are buggy as hell. But I can’t see myself using Gothub because it doesn’t support PRs at all!

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
masklinn 3y ago
For PRs reviewable.io is what I’d like to use instead of github, but while understandable the giant button it puts on the PRs makes it difficult to use as a personal secret frontend without company buy-in. Shame, because just the tracking of comments which doesn’t suck would be a boon, to see nothing of seeing what’s actually changed since the last review beyond “this file has changed”
- fahhem 3y ago
  Thanks for the compliment masklinn! Paying users can turn off the button on PR descriptions (and free users have some flexibility on where it goes). I hope you understand we can't provide the service free and secretly :D
codeapprove 3y ago
Shameless plug but if you're looking for an alternative UI for GitHub PRs, you may want to try CodeApprove (https://codeapprove.com https://codeapprove.com) Frustrations with GitHub's PR performance, limitations, and overall clunky UX are the main reasons people choose to use CodeApprove instead.
38 3y ago
file list doesn't work at all: https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/ma... https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src

trumbitta2 3y ago

I was kind of expecting it to be riddled with baroque embellishments, gargoyles, and bats.

mseepgood 3y ago
Gothic embellishments (the Baroque period was a couple of centuries later)
AdmiralAsshat 3y ago
If I play only Sisters of Mercy and Type O Negative while browsing gothub, is that close enough?
omgmajk 3y ago
I too hoped for a gothic github.

rywalker 3y ago

Pronounced "goat-hub" ?

pizzafeelsright 3y ago
Goth-ube, obviously.
- toastal 3y ago
  That would make a fine dessert.
  - benatkin 3y ago
    I'm thinking cheesecake, like this place in the Hillsdale Mall on the Peninsula.

maw 3y ago

What's the point of this? Github's UI seems reasonably well done and reasonably responsive to me. And it's not like you're removing a dependency, which is defensible. I'm probably missing something here - what? Now, if there were something like this but for Gitlab, whose UI is distractingly slow and just plain weird in a lot of ways, then I'd be very interested.

flkenosad 3y ago
Well it's open source, that's a biggie.
- dewey 3y ago
  It's not a GitHub alternative, it's a different frontend for GitHub.
  - toastercat 3y ago
    Their point still stands. If Github makes a change you don't like to their UI tomorrow, there's nothing you can do. An open-source frontend provides an opportunity for you to customize the way you browse Github.
Am4TIfIsER0ppos 3y ago
I see it is an instance thing like invidious or nitter which might be valuable for browsing github because it obscures you from microsoft but that makes it read-only because the moment you identify yourself you lose that benefit. That's assuming you can even do that on this. Basically I don't know because I never browse github. I am there for read-write purposes.
lurtbancaster 3y ago
A page such as this[1] requires javascript to be enabled to be viewable on github. Viewing any and all "/blob/" pages on github requires javascript to be enabled now. It didn't used to be this way ~1 year ago but github is slowly making javascript necessary on many pages for some annoying reason. I could set up a redirect to the '/raw/' pages but then the syntax highlighting is gone. The same page is perfectly viewable over plain html on gothub[2] though. Github also seems to be hiding their "Assets" (binaries et al) on the "/releases" page for some projects behind javascript(especially older versions).[3] Something else that wasn't the case about ~1.5 years ago. Would be great if gothub could unshackle the links to those as well[4], but that doesn't seem to work at the moment[5] . This project appears to be a more performant(measurably so), more privacy friendly(as Microsoft won't have a record of your interest in certain projects) alternative front-end for "non logged in" github users. I like it, but it still needs work. [1] https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255ae1495ba2da84517dce6081/src/os.h#L56-L75 https://github.com/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255ae14... [2] https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255ae1495ba2da84517dce6081/src/os.h#L56-L75 https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mackyle/sqlite/blob/18cf47156abe94255... [3] https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases [4] https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mikf/gallery-dl/releases https://gh.bloatcat.tk/mikf/gallery-dl/releases [5] https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/74 https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/74

Sujeto 3y ago

GitHub puns are easy https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/githop/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/githop/

codeapprove 3y ago

I love seeing projects like this! In general I have always been extremely impressed with the coverage of GitHub's APIs. They're generally well designed, well documented, and available publicly around the same time as a new feature is announced. Which makes it possible to develop alternative UIs like this that aren't complete hacks. Very few other platforms have this type of coverage! I've used the GitHub APIs on CodeApprove (https://codeapprove.com https://codeapprove.com) to replace the part of GitHub that bothered me the most: Pull Requests.

henriquecm8 3y ago

In Gothub the only theme is dark.

38 3y ago

the real problem with GitHub is the awful issue pages. For example look at this: https://github.com/golang/go/issues/21498 https://github.com/golang/go/issues/21498 they put this randomly in the middle of the page: > 456 hidden items > Load more you click it, then you get this: > 396 hidden items > Load more seriously, what is this? how is this better than pagination? with pagination, I can see the first page, and if I want to also see the last page (which this UI seems to be trying to do) I just click the link to the last page. what is so awful about pagination that we have ended up with this horrible excuse for a forum?

bastardoperator 3y ago
I personally don't want to go back and forth between pages when they include hundreds of comments. Inline loading of comments is the much better, smarter alternative. The last comments are loaded, you just gotta hit the page down key. The only thing that isn't loaded are the middle comments, and all you have to do there is tap load more comments link. Yeah, a company that does over a billion API requests per day, they're not going to load 500 comments on a page, if you need that and I don't think you do, use the API, it has pagination...
- benatkin 3y ago
  I agree with you. As someone who agrees with the other thread that the new pages for displaying code are a step backwards, I think that the issue pages are quite good.
- 38 3y ago
  > Inline loading of comments is the much better, smarter alternative. with pagination, each page has a fixed number of comments, which means an expected amount of memory/CPU/network transfer. with inline loading, everything is loaded into the current page, which means the CPU and memory use essentially become unbounded, so the more you load the slower it goes. > The last comments are loaded, you just gotta hit the page down key. that's not how GitHub works. as I mentioned in the previous comment, this hidden comments are in the MIDDLE of the page, so page down doesn't make any sense here. > The only thing that isn't loaded are the middle comments, and all you have to do there is tap load more comments link. this only loads 60 comments, so in the example page I linked you'd need to: 1. click load more 2. scroll down until you find the end of the 60 new comments and then repeat this process 7 more times. with pagination, the page links are always at the bottom, not randomly in the middle of the page, making for faster navigation. > Yeah, a company that does over a billion API requests per day, they're not going to load 500 comments on a page no one is asking them to do that. that's what the current system allows for. I am asking for pagination, which would split all the comments across pages, which would only be loaded on request.

oefrha 3y ago

Calling this an alternative front end for GitHub sets all the wrong expectations. At least at the moment it’s just a very incomplete file browser for files on GitHub, and even the directory view doesn’t work — if you want to see a non-top-level file you have to manually construct the URL. There’s no commit view, no log view, no blame view, etc., and forget about search or issues.

defanor 3y ago

Directory listing appears to be broken: I see pages without content when trying to browse directories [1]; observed on a few instances I tried, with a few repositories. The code div is restricted to something like 50 characters, leading to line wrapping, if the browser window is at a width allowing about 150 characters; huge and unnecessary margins there, particularly awkward for code. Looks like it may be nice and useful though, especially if it had a working search on top of browsing: GitHub's new search is tiring to use for skimming a new codebase now, and cloning large repositories for such skimming is inconvenient. [1] https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/src https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/ma...

smarx007 3y ago
This seems to be due to [1], so the project is hardly demoable now. [1]: https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/124 https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub/issues/124
- blurker 3y ago
  Ahh as someone who has built several scraping applications, I feel their pain. It's a constant battle to keep your scraper working.

bastardoperator 3y ago

No thank you, this isn't a front end replacement, it's just reading the API and displaying stuff in half ass kind of way.

thiht 3y ago

Oof, that doesn't look good. And it doesn't even work, when you click on a folder in the file listing it doesn't show anything. And if after that you click on "Back to xxx" you get an error that tries to be funny: > Someone pushed to production. Just kidding, that's probably not what happened Don't try to be funny in error messages, this is not helpful. https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/main/main https://gothub.frontendfriendly.xyz/microsoft/vscode/tree/ma...

zzo38computer 3y ago

There is some problem: - It does not display the contents of subdirectories if one is selected. - Perhaps, add a slash at the end of directory names so that you can tell that it is a subdirectory more easily. - Is it possible to list the available branches, issues pull requests, forks, etc? - Can the style be changed? I don't like it to use its own width instead of using the window size.

Brian_K_White 3y ago

a front end for a front end...