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Neon Modem Overdrive is aBBS-style command line client thatsupportsDiscourse,Lemmy,Lobsters andHacker News as backends, and seamlessly integrates all of theminto a streamlined TUI. And yes, you heard that right, I really did call itNeon Modem Overdrive.

Neon Modem is built in Go, usingCharm's Bubble Tea TUIframework, but implements an ownwindow manager (orcompositor if you want)that allows it to use a third dimension, on top of the two dimensional renderingthat Bubble Tea offers today. With that it is possible to display dialogs on topof one another, in order to offer a smoother UI experience.

More info here!

Download thelatestrelease and unpackit:

$ tar -xzf ./neonmodem_*.tar.gz

The binary is calledneonmodem. Feel free to move it to e.g./usr/local/bin.

Clone this repository

• fromGitHub

  $ git clone git@github.com:mrusme/neonmodem.git

• fromRadicle

  $ rad clone rad:z4GExf1wpsyn6WDc2dNAxVc6LPS9G

Then cd into the cloned directory and run:

make

The binary is calledneonmodem. Feel free to move it to e.g./usr/local/bin.

For Arch Linux an AUR package is available here:https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/neonmodem

Install with your favorite AUR helper.

On NetBSD, a package is available from the official repositories.To install it, simply runpkgin install neonmodem.

Before launchingNeon Modem Overdrive it requires initial setup of theservices (a.k.a.systems). Runneonmodem connect --help to find out more.

Connecting a service will add it to the configuration TOML. The configurationfile location depends on the operating system. On Unix systems, it is in$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/neonmodem.toml if$XDG_CONFIG_HOME is non-empty, otherwise$HOME/.config/neonmodem.toml is used. On Darwin, the configuration is in$HOME/Library/Application Support/neonmodem.toml. On Windows, it is in%AppData%\neonmodem.toml.

For connecting to a Discourse instance you'll need to have an active account onthat instance.Neon Modem will store the instance URL, username and a userkey, but no password.

neonmodem connect --type discourse --url https://www.keebtalk.com

For connecting to a Lemmy instance you'll need to have an active account on thatinstance.Neon Modem will store the instance URL, username and password.

neonmodem connect --type lemmy --url https://lemmy.ml

For connecting to a Lobsters instance you won't need an account, as theintegration is read-only.Neon Modem will store the instance URL.

neonmodem connect --type lobsters --url https://lobste.rs

For connecting to Hacker News you won't need an account, as the integration isread-only.

neonmodem connect --type hackernews

The UI can be fully customized via theTheme section in the configurationfile. To reset settings, all theme related configurations can simply be deletedfrom the configuration.

After setupNeon Modem can be launched by callingneonmodem without anyarguments. It will briefly display a splash screen, then switch to the postslist, which will aggregate the latest posts from all connected systems. Aprogress icon will be visible in the header while network requests are loading.

In the posts list:

• j: Scroll down
• k: Scroll up
• r/enter: Open selected post
• n: Write new post in on the system/forum of the current selected post
• C-e: Open system selector
• C-t: Open forum selector
• esc: Quit

In the post view dialog:

• r: Reply to post
• #r: Reply to specific comment # in post, e.g.3r to reply to the reply #3
• z: Load older replies (if available)
• esc: Close dialog

In the new post / new reply dialog:

• tab: Switch between elements (only in new post dialog)
• C-s: Submit post/reply
• esc: Close dialog

• Q: The post view is really slow when using a large terminal.
  A: Turning off image rendering will improve performance significantly onvery large terminal windows and can be done by settingRenderImages = falsein the configuration.
• Q: Can I haz Reddit?
  A: I won't do the heavy lifting of integrating a proprietary platform witha $15 billion valuation that can't even be bothered to maintain a solid set ofclient API libraries. If you feel like, go ahead and PR!