I'm currently developing an Amiga client for the Mastodon social network.

Who are you?

A returned Amigan! I owned an A500, an A1200 and a CD32 as a teenager and I compiled my first C code on an A500 in North C. I've been programming professionally since the 90s but mostly in languages like Golang, Scala, Java, Python and some C++. I've done very little C since college TBH and I have found myself really enjoying the simple bring what you need ethos (golang was the gateway drug there).

This project is a labor of love for me. Given the dicey browser situation, I'm interested in bringing the web to AmigaNG with GUI apps, just like it was in the 90s before the browser took over and ruined everything ;)

What is Mastodon?

It's an open-source, federated social-network. Users make accounts on instances, which may be themed for particular content (much like an old-school chat room) or be more general-purpose. Each instance owner can set their own moderation policies, community guidelines, etc. Most importantly, each instance can choose which other instances to federate with, so if you really don't want a certain type of content, it is possible to block content from that instance. Superficially, it is a little like Twitter with timelines and statuses. My experience is the community is very different, with a strong focus on friendly dialog often focused on the theme for an instance (writing, retro-computers, whatever). There's no ads, no corporate control, just a free-wheeling network, much like the internet before the tech-giants came to dominate.

So what am I building?

A few months ago I started with the goal of building a Mastodon-client for the "Amiga". I spun-up a copy of AROS in a Virtual Box VM on macOS because this is what I had easily available to me. So currently I'm slinging code in C, using MUI and compiling on gcc natively on my virtual AROS box. This morning I hit a major milestone of being able to log in, retrieve a timeline and post status ("a toot"). The UI is poor, the workflow is terrible and there's lots of work for me to do.

Which target platforms?

Definitely AROS and I would very much like to build an AmigaOS4 version too, ideally with a Reaction-based GUI. That's a little down the road as I don't yet have a shiny X5000 although I very much plan to add one ASAP.

I've had one person ask about a MorphOS version. This would seem to be relatively simple due to MorphOS also using the same MUI clone, Zune, as AROS. I also had another person ask whether it would work on a Vampirized Amiga, so I guess that would be fun to find out.

Might it even run on classic?

if it is possible and anyone is interested in using it.

Is it going to be open-source?

Yes but not yet. I haven't decided on a license yet but most definitely, once I have a beta quality release for my first platform (likely AROS). I'm not rushing to throw the code up on a public github because right now this project is a vehicle for me to learn more about the AmigaOS API and get some real C programming practice.

Are you interested in a dev diary for this project where I post regular updates, screen shots etc? I'm not looking to turn this into a multi-person project yet but I do appreciate constructive feedback.

If you are interested, post a reply, otherwise I won't spam the forum with news and stay heads down until closer to release.

Thanks for reading.

@remotenemesis

I'd be interested to follow such development

Keep us informed !

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PowerMac G5 2,7Ghz - 2GB - Radeon 9650 - MorphOS 3.14
AmigaONE X1000, 2GB, Sapphire Radeon HD 7700
FPGA Replay + DB 68060 at 85Mhz

@remotenemesis

depending whether you have been using appropriate macros parametrizing callback hooks in zune and the like your source may compile and work not only form aros x86 but also m68k which may enable whoever is using it on an genuine amiga or vampire to test it. im not sure though if they actually have solved the boot behaviour on the accelerator boards in question.

@remotenemesis

Yep interested too, as I didn't knew about that social network, could you point me to a good windows client? Firefox and Edge do not like https://mastodon.social/about

How about good retro instances?

Last edited by kamelit0 on 16-May-2018 at 08:19 PM.

@remotenemesis

I like big horns and I cannot lie
You other bothers can't deny
When a girl drives in with a tiny toot
And it might as well be mute
You get sprung...


Well I think you know why.

Anyway thanks for your post and associated work. Even if not everybody is interested or knows about it the Amiga world welcomes more creative content. So go ahead and post updates.

@remotenemesis

Quote:

This would seem to be relatively simple due to MorphOS also using the same MUI clone, Zune, as AROS.

It does not. At all.

MorphOS uses the real original MUI. It was the first operating system to feature a PowerPC native version of MUI and MorphOS users are not required to register MUI as it is the official default GUI toolkit of MorphOS.

@ASiegel

thx for pointing that out. anyone should have straighten this rather major mistake, dunno how that went unaddressed.

the point remains, whats probably the original posters intention, that there is at least best will that applications coded against zune, being an open source clone of mui, not a fork, actually should also work with mui and its os4 offshot.

Last edited by wawa on 17-May-2018 at 09:52 PM.
Last edited by wawa on 17-May-2018 at 09:51 PM.
Last edited by wawa on 17-May-2018 at 09:50 PM.

@kamelit0 I asked around and old bytes was recommended to me. You might want to check that out. I can't recommend a windows client to you but here's a list. I have no issues loading in Firefox.

@hypex thanks! Glad somebody gets the reference.

@ASiegel / @wawa thanks for the correction, NBD. I'll aim to support MorphOS if I can.

@remotenemesis

welcome back

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