

Uzbl – Web interface tools which adhere to the Unix philosophy - javanix
http://www.uzbl.org/readme.php

======
Smudge
> Any program can only be really useful if it complies with the Unix
> philosophy.

False! Software can be really useful without being modular and readily
composable.

But I enjoy the premise of what Uzbl is aiming to solve. It would certainly
make for a richer array of web-related software components, with plenty of
uses beyond just web browsers.

~~~
npsimons
I think the contention comes when you get down to brass tacks; note the author
emphasizes " _really_ useful", and hence probably means, sure, your software
might be "useful", but it's not useful to the extant that a program you can
insert into a pipeline or script is.

~~~
amagumori
sure, many unix programs might be useful, but without good UX design, remain
horrible to use (see: tar). taking the unix philosophy as gospel is myopic;
computer programs are meant to be used by people, and a program can only be
useful if it's well-designed for use by people.

~~~
idlewan
However, tar is a command-line program, and thus easy to interface with.

Thus, I recommend `atool`, which use tar, unzip, unrar, ... but wraps it all
in a very good UX not depending on the archive type.

    
    
        aunpack my_archive.zip
        aunpack my_archive.rar
        aunpack my_archive.bzip
        ...
    

It also makes the right choice when several files not under a directory are in
the archive (create a new directory and place files inside), when the archive
contains a single file (just place the file in the current directory), and
when a clash of names can occur with a file/directory already present in your
cwd (unpacks in a directory named 'Unpack-XYZ')

------
rjzzleep
i can't really use this project now that my main os is osx(i frequently boot
from my ssd with archlinux on the mba), but

 _i absolutely love_ this project. it's amazing,

the only thing i'm a little sad about is that i never wrote the pass plugin i
wanted for password store [1]. but hey you can still write one

the main author moved, but there are fairly active forks[2].

the amazing thing about this is that you can write plugins in any scripting
language you want. you can pretty much hook it's basically a mighty scriptable
version of webkit.

here are a bunch of scripts you can use to extend it with [3]

on a sidenote, a completely different, but also interesting approach are
conkeror [4] and luakit [5]. though luakit seems abandoned too. luakit is kind
of a lua webkit browser framework with sane vi like defaults. conkeror is an
emacs for xulrunner, however keep in mind that since firefox is taking over
the role of xulrunner you might not really need xulrunner at all.

[1] [http://www.zx2c4.com/projects/password-
store/](http://www.zx2c4.com/projects/password-store/)

[2]
[https://github.com/mathstuf/uzbl/tree/next](https://github.com/mathstuf/uzbl/tree/next)

[3] [http://www.uzbl.org/wiki/scripts](http://www.uzbl.org/wiki/scripts)

[4]
[http://conkeror.org/#Installation_and_Startup](http://conkeror.org/#Installation_and_Startup)

[5] [http://mason-larobina.github.io/luakit/](http://mason-
larobina.github.io/luakit/)

~~~
javanix
Its pretty kludgy, but X forwarding to a local VM that runs it is actually
usable.

It's also available through MacPorts apparently, though I haven't had a chance
to try it.

------
mvip
We've been using Uzbl in Screenly
([http://www.screenlyapp.com/](http://www.screenlyapp.com/)) for some time now
and it works really well.

------
xiaq
For anyone wondering, uzbl stands for “usable”.

~~~
ezequiel-garzon
Thanks! As a non-native speaker I thought it was as arbitrary as xkcd.

------
sparkie
Another browser with a similar approach:
[http://portix.bitbucket.org/dwb/](http://portix.bitbucket.org/dwb/)

~~~
_delirium
A few others (all based on webkit, like uzbl):

[http://surf.suckless.org/](http://surf.suckless.org/)

[http://mason-larobina.github.io/luakit/](http://mason-
larobina.github.io/luakit/)

[https://pwmt.org/projects/jumanji/](https://pwmt.org/projects/jumanji/)

------
javanix
Thanks for the rename, whoever did that. Couldn't figure out how to properly
phrase it without being super link-baity.

------
bradgessler
Has anybody looked into the application of this for headless acceptance tests
on web apps?

------
mixedbit
Does Mozilla explore similar architecture with their experimental Servo
project?

~~~
mercurial
Servo is a rendering engine (think WebKit), not a browser. So maybe you'll get
an uzbl based on Servo one day, just like you may get a Servo-based Firefox,
or it may remain at the state of a research project, with lessons incorporated
back into Gecko.

------
agumonkey
[related] ii irc client where everything is a file
[http://erthalion.github.io/2014/02/16/ii/](http://erthalion.github.io/2014/02/16/ii/)

------
_delirium
Development seems to have mostly dropped off in the past year, fwiw:
[https://github.com/Dieterbe/uzbl](https://github.com/Dieterbe/uzbl)

------
zhemao
Hey, it's in Arch community repository! Happy day.

    
    
        sudo pacman -S uzbl-tabbed

~~~
yogo
Thanks for mentioning this. I never thought to even search because often
something like this is in AUR, which I never bother with. I will definitely
take it for a spin now.

~~~
baldfat
why wouldn't you "bother" with AUR. What stops you?

~~~
yogo
I don't run software from AUR on my systems. I consider the packages unstable.
It's just a personal rule of mine, I'm sure there are some stable, quality
packages in there.

~~~
baldfat
If a package is stable or not has nothing to do with AUR.

I used it for years for CLI apps like ranger and dmenu that eventually moved
into the the community repo.

Only way (Besides compiling it yourself) to get many programs to work like
CrashPlan.

------
vezzy-fnord
I tried out uzbl a few months ago. It works very well for tiling WMs,
actually. I should consider using it more often.

~~~
mercurial
I tried it a few years ago. I think it's conceptually interesting, but I
realized that I had no need, on a day to day basis, to combine in arbitrary
ways the various pieces which make a full browser experience. I'm content with
Firefox + Pentadactyl, but I'm glad uzbl exists.

~~~
w1ntermute
Last I checked, Pentadactyl is dead. I've moved back to Vimperator.

~~~
rjzzleep
[https://code.google.com/p/dactyl/source/browse#hg%2Fcommon%2...](https://code.google.com/p/dactyl/source/browse#hg%2Fcommon%2Fcontent)

i don't know where you got the impression. if anything it's the other way
round, no?

~~~
w1ntermute
When I went to install Pentadactyl from the Firefox addons site, it told me
that Pentadactyl wasn't compatible with my (the latest) version of Firefox,
27.0.

~~~
anaphor
The developer(s) are slow about incrementing the allowed versions. Literally
all you have to do to make it work (usually) is vim
~/.mozilla/firefox/yourprofile/extensions/whatever.xpi, then type
/install.rdf, hit enter twice, edit <em:maxVersion>n</em:maxVersion> to be +1,
then hit :x and you're done.

Of course this requires that you have it installed beforehand, otherwise just
download the files manually and edit install.rdf before installing it.

~~~
NotOscarWilde
> The developer(s) are slow about incrementing the allowed versions.

> Literally all you have to do to make it work (usually) is vim
> ~/.mozilla/firefox/yourprofile/extensions/whatever.xpi, then type
> /install.rdf, hit enter twice, edit <em:maxVersion>n</em:maxVersion> to be
> +1, then hit :x and you're done.

Can you (or anyone else) explain why the developers hesitate to fix this
problem officially? Like you said, it is rather simple to fix.

Even though most of us on HN are able to apply the fix ourselves, integrating
the fix to the official pentadactyl extension would save time for _everyone_
that wants to try or install pentadactyl.

~~~
anaphor
Sorry I don't know why this happens, but as far as I can tell they do
increment the nightlies (usually a couple weeks after a new Firefox version).
I don't know why the version on the plugins site is so out of date though,
you'd have to ask one of the developers (irc.oftc.net #pentadactyl).

------
javanix
I'd love to figure out how to get tmux/screen keybindings for this.

Opening a browser and using it within an existing terminal (without needing
the mouse) would be incredibly close to the ideal workflow for me.

------
ezequiel-garzon
This is awesome! Is there a uzbl command to view the page source?

------
xiaq
for anyone wondering, uzbl stands for “usable”.

