[HN Gopher] Scribe - An alternative front-end to Medium
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Scribe - An alternative front-end to Medium
Author : mrzool
Score : 153 points
Date : 2021-10-12 10:17 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (scribe.rip)
(TXT) w3m dump (scribe.rip)
| thomcano wrote:
| Is this going to let me read articles that are locked behind a
| subscription?
| edwardloveall wrote:
| Yes. More about that here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28839112
| can16358p wrote:
| Does it allow me to bypass the paywall (which I can already using
| private browsing mode but an extra thing)? If yes, I'm sold!
| rodorgas wrote:
| I don't think so, but there's https://burles.co/en for this
| edwardloveall wrote:
| It does. The API I'm using just... doesn't check. I'm not even
| sure how I'd support the pay wall.
| iruoy wrote:
| If someone uses a medium.com subdomain converting it is a little
| more work.
|
| For example, this link from the current HN homepage before and
| after:
|
| https://kgizdov.medium.com/the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50ea...
|
| https://scribe.rip/@kgizdov/the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50e...
| gchamonlive wrote:
| https://scribe.rip/the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50ea81f69f5
|
| works fine
| edwardloveall wrote:
| Actually, you don't even need to do this! Scribe only cares
| about the last few hex digits in the URL's path: the post id.
| So you can leave off the subdomain and https://scribe.rip/the-
| efficiency-of-microsoft-e50ea81f69f5 will work just as well.
| app4soft wrote:
| Sadly, Scribe can't recursively recognize & replace sub-links
| to Medium, see this[0] table of contents.
|
| [0] https://scribe.rip/orienteering-mapping-with-lidar-
| smartphon...
| edwardloveall wrote:
| Yup, this is on my todo list. Thanks for the example post I
| can use as a reference!
| Quarrel wrote:
| There are quite a few chrome extensions that just fix the referer
| on medium, and work just fine. You can also trivially use your
| own version, as well as limit them to only medium.com.
|
| (Or use one of the more generic referer rewriters)
| dctoedt wrote:
| Historical note: In 1980-81, Brian Reid invented the Scribe
| markup language and processor, basically a predecessor to HTML
| and Markdown; a successor to RUNOFF; and simpler than Knuth's
| then-recent TeX. Scribe led to Reid's getting the ACM's Grace
| Murray Hopper award. I used The Final Word's version of Scribe
| and Emacs to produce camera-ready copy for my first book.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribe_(markup_language)
| svat wrote:
| In fact, the syntax of LaTeX (not TeX)--the idea of
| environments etc--is heavily based on Scribe: Leslie Lamport,
| who was a Scribe user, basically reimplemented parts of Scribe
| in TeX macros; the result was LaTeX. You can see the
| resemblance between Scribe's syntax:
| @Heading(The Beginning) @Begin(Quotation)
| Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start
| @End(Quotation)
|
| and LaTeX's. Lamport mentions Scribe a few times in this
| interview: https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb22-1-2/tb70lamp.pdf
|
| > _I don't think TeX and LaTeX would have become popular had
| they not been free. Indeed, I think most users would have been
| happier with Scribe. Had Scribe been free and had it continued
| to be supported, I suspect it would have won out over TeX. On
| the other hand, I think it would have been supplanted more
| quickly by Word than TeX has been._
|
| (I'm not sure he's right; I think TeX/LaTeX benefited from
| _both_ Knuth 's concern for typographical excellence and
| Lamport's concern for authors' convenience, and the "book-
| quality printing" of TeX would have always had a place, but
| hard to say what would have happened.)
|
| [Edit: Changed "superficial syntax"; I just meant syntax as
| opposed to implementation details.]
| dctoedt wrote:
| > _the superficial syntax of LaTeX (not TeX) is heavily based
| on Scribe_
|
| Interesting -- I hadn't previously connected those dots; it's
| been years since I used Scribe and only recently did I start
| using LaTeX (mostly with org-mode as a front end, delving
| into LaTeX only as needed).
|
| Thanks for the link to the Lamport interview, which was
| illuminating.
| yewenjie wrote:
| I wish there were simple Docker deployment instructions so I
| could self-host an instance.
| gchamonlive wrote:
| This project seems like pure static files replacing medium
| frontend. No need for a docker deployment.
| edwardloveall wrote:
| It's a Crystal [1] app built with the Lucky Framework [2].
| The source code is here [3] and there are a few instructions
| in the README for deploying, but not much yet.
|
| [1] https://crystal-lang.org
|
| [2] https://luckyframework.org
|
| [3] https://git.sr.ht/~edwardloveall/scribe
| Nextgrid wrote:
| Any particular reason to use this language? Invidious uses
| this as well and it's been a major pain to contribute
| compared to a more mainstream language like Python, Ruby,
| PHP or Javascript.
| edwardloveall wrote:
| I'm a ruby dev so as @bogwog mentioned, Crystal is
| appealing in it's similarly. I like being in a typed
| language, and it's _fast_. I'm running this on a very low
| powered server and it's holding up great.
|
| Also, while I'm really glad it seems to have resonated
| with so many people, a huge part of this project was the
| learning I got from it. Getting better at Crystal's type
| system and the Lucky framework, discovering and using the
| monads library, learning how to deploy crystal, etc. I
| hear you on Invidious being difficult to contribute to.
| I've felt the same way. My difficulties have stemmed, not
| from crystal, but from the custom libraries that
| invidious needs. I effectively can't run it locally
| without Docker. Scribe should work fine locally.
|
| Every language and framework has its tradeoffs. Rails
| would certainly have been the safer choice, but I also
| don't expect this to have massive contributions, so I
| went for the thing I was more interested in. Maybe that
| was a wrong choice, who knows!
|
| So TL;DR I like crystal and wanted more experience with
| it. It felt like the right tradeoff for this project,
| this time.
| bogwog wrote:
| The neat 3D spinning crystal on the landing page probably
| has a non-zero impact on adoption.
|
| I don't see what else could be a big draw for it. Maybe
| it's appealing for Ruby devs, since it has a similar
| syntax? I've never used Ruby, but it probably makes more
| sense if you compare them.
| antman wrote:
| Any ideas how that could work for other domains in the medium
| platform?
| ignoramous wrote:
| An alternative for all text-heavy websites: https://archive.is/
| debloats, that is archives a markup-only webpage free of
| javascript, dealing admirably well even with SPAs.
| NoGravitas wrote:
| My only gripe with archive.is is that their archived pages
| don't support Firefox Reader Mode, even if the original page
| would have. It's great for breaking paywalls, though.
| DeadBeatDad wrote:
| Slightly off topic:
|
| I love tinkering with Medium URLs
|
| Here's four URls that all work
|
| https://kgizdov.medium.com/the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50ea...
|
| https://kgizdov.medium.com/@the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50e...
|
| https://kgizdov.medium.com/@@the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50...
|
| https://kgizdov.medium.com/@@@the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e5...
|
| They exclude the `@` for some reason
| mrzool wrote:
| I quickly whipped up a bookmarklet to view any Medium article in
| scribe.rip for anyone interested: javascript:lo
| cation.hostname.includes("medium.com")?location.assign("https://s
| cribe.rip"+location.pathname+location.search+location.hash):locat
| ion.assign("https://scribe.rip");
| gchamonlive wrote:
| Seems to work even for the subdomain link example below:
|
| https://kgizdov.medium.com/the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50ea...
|
| Output:
|
| https://scribe.rip/the-efficiency-of-microsoft-e50ea81f69f5
| edwardloveall wrote:
| I _believe_ you can do one simpler (assuming the reader only
| clicks the link if they recognize it's a medium post)
| javascript:q=location.pathname;location.href="https://scribe.ri
| p"+q;
| djrockstar1 wrote:
| while we're golfing javascript:location.href
| ="https://scribe.rip"+location.pathname;
| desas wrote:
| Golf you say?
| javascript:l=location;l.href="//scribe.rip"+l.pathname;
| malshe wrote:
| Thanks, I ended up using yours. But I might change that
| if someone shortens it even more /s
| adamrezich wrote:
| javascript:l=location;l.href="//scribe.rip"+(l.hostname.i
| ncludes("medium.com")?l.pathname:"");
|
| is a happy medium (no pun intended) & I'll give it a go
| in my bookmark toolbar
| jccalhoun wrote:
| This could use a bit of explanation for why someone would want to
| use this. I take it medium is bloated or something?
| rodorgas wrote:
| I'm more bothered with the login wall.
| mattwad wrote:
| opening in incognito also works!
| eigengrau5150 wrote:
| I'm more bothered by the fact that Medium is a content farm
| whose offerings are neither rare nor well-done.
| mastazi wrote:
| There is also the browser extension Make Medium Readable
| Again[1], one thing that I like about it is that it removes
| Medium's lazy loading[2]
|
| [1] https://makemediumreadable.com/
|
| [2] if you have a fast connection you may have no idea why it's
| bad, try to load an image-heavy Medium article on a slow
| connection and you will see what I mean (indistinguishable blobs
| of colour for about 30 seconds, then finally full res images,
| with no in-between).
| laurent123456 wrote:
| This extension was working for some times but then Medium made
| some changes and it stopped working. Or is it working again?
| camillomiller wrote:
| If you have an iOS device, I whipped up a quick and dirty Siri
| Shortcut:
| https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/d6782bdf84f94612a197ef410ec...
|
| Once installed, you can long tap on any medium link, select
| share, then pick Scribe 4 Medium from your quick actions.
|
| The link opens in Safari.
|
| Edit: if you use it on medium links within the app, Scribe adds a
| link.scribe subdomain which throws a SSL warning and creates a
| broken link. Could be due to the ?source=link in the medium app
| url. I'm trying to clean it out. Not sure if that's an intended
| functionality from scribe tho
|
| Edit 2: nope it's medium cloaked links. Will fix it later :)
| schleck8 wrote:
| is it javascript and/or tracking free?
| edwardloveall wrote:
| It is. I use JS to generate the statically loaded CSS, and
| there's some JS built into the Lucky Framework which is loaded,
| but not used.
|
| You can check out the source code here if you like:
| https://git.sr.ht/~edwardloveall/scribe
| schleck8 wrote:
| awesome :)
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(page generated 2021-10-12 23:02 UTC)