README.txt

                             _____________

                                  MAFA

                              Michael Lee
                             _____________


Table of Contents
_________________

A Small Demo
Installation
.. Prerequisite
.. Option 1: Cargo install
.. Option 2: Prebuilt binaries
.. Option 3: Build from source
About
.. How Mafa works
.. Why Mafa
.. Background
Mafa Components
.. More and more
Contributing
License





A Small Demo
============

  /(captured by [LICEcap])/

  <img src="demo.gif" alt="demo" width="500px"/>


[LICEcap] <https://www.cockos.com/licecap/>


Installation
============

Prerequisite
~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Mafa does not work alone, below are programs that it depends on:

  1. Firefox
     - version: 91 or later
     - edition: ESR or Latest.


Option 1: Cargo install
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  If you have Cargo installed already, then you can

  ,----
  | cargo install mafa
  | 
  | # check installed version
  | mafa --version
  `----


Option 2: Prebuilt binaries
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Check [releases].


[releases] <https://github.com/micl2e2/mafa/releases>


Option 3: Build from source
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  WIP


About
=====

  Mafa is an in-terminal web browser companion. It resides in terminal,
  help perple browse websites' content readily and efficiently.  Mafa
  accomplishs its tasks by [Mafa Components].

  Mafa develops for the ones who want to benefit from Web's openness as
  much as possible.

  However, Mafa is *NOT* suitable for the following tasks:

  - Browse websites without a web browser.  (Mafa needs Firefox)

  - Capture every detail of a website.  (Open your favorite web browser
    directly)

  - Crawl a whole website and extract all its data.  (A dedicated web
    crawler does a better job)


[Mafa Components] Unknown reference

How Mafa works
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Mafa leverages [WebDriver] to achieve its goals. More specifically,
  Mozilla's [GeckoDriver] is in use. With WebDriver, Mafa can act like a
  human, browsing websites naturally for its user.


[WebDriver] <https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver>

[GeckoDriver] <https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver>


Why Mafa
~~~~~~~~

Mafa is Usable & Convenient
---------------------------

  Unlike other counterparts, Mafa strives to balance usability and
  convenience: Mafa will try its best to finish the task on its own or
  instruct users to open web browser directly if it cannot perfectly
  handle the situation(such as in cases where the website is equipped
  with CAPTCHA or requires user login). What Mafa tries to be is a
  browser companion, *not* a replacement.


Mafa is Neutral
---------------

  The underlying WebDriver backs by a nearly full-functional web
  browser. Overall, Mafa default *not* to subjectively strip any feature
  a website user or provider can take advantage of, just like on a
  normal full-functional web browser.

  Therefore there is no reason for providers to particularly prevent
  Mafa from accessing their websites, which likely leads to a negative
  result for *both* sides.

  It is noteworthy that Mafa does not wipe out the user identity by
  default, as a regular web browser does. It is essential for website
  providers because while many websites abuse user privacy, there are
  always ones collecting it for a good reason, such as [Ecosia].


[Ecosia] <https://www.ecosia.org>


Mafa is Stable & Long-lasting
-----------------------------

  One of Mafa's goals is to handle websites stably for a relatively
  **long** period. Modern web pages are famous for their dynamic
  characteristic. However, Mafa can handle those dynamic and
  unpredictable web pages as effortlessly as the static ones.


Background
~~~~~~~~~~

  Although Mafa is initially developed for (*M*)aking (*A*)PI (*F*)ree
  (*A*)gain, it is not realistic. Instead of freeing APIs, Mafa frees
  the text-form data behind the APIs. Here "free" is the same word
  defined in [What is Free Software?], i.e., as in "free speech", not as
  in "free beer".

  Some websites provide their data /publicly/ but do not publish
  corresponding APIs to access it, while others offer their data
  /publicly/ in their carefully designed websites and APIs but with even
  more carefully designed pricing. Those websites are blocking users
  from accessing their /public/ data by either not providing APIs or
  providing ones with non-trivial barriers, examples of disrespecting
  users' freedom.

  Mafa is the one who commits to protexting web users' freedom. It tries
  its best to achieve the initial goal: as long as the data is publicly
  accessible to all users without discrimination, the APIs to access it
  should be as well.


[What is Free Software?]
<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html>


Mafa Components
===============



  /Mafa Components/ are child programs that rely on [WebDriver] to do
  their job. Each module has a fixed, predefined website url and has a
  specific task for that site. With components, users can browse
  websites without interacting with web browsers directly.

  Note that Mafa supports wbsites /selectively/ rather than
  /arbitrarily/, the selected ones are:

  - TWTL: Query Twitter users' timeline.

  - GTRANS: Query translation from Google Translate.

  - CAMD: Query word definition from Cambridge Dictionary.

  - IMODE: Interactive mode.


[WebDriver] <https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver>

More and more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Mafa is open in its heart! If your favorite websites are not listed
  here, you can [submit a features request] or write a component for
  your favorite website, as long as that site meets the following
  requirements:

  1. Not shut down in the foreseeable future.
  2. The valuable data is in text form.
  3. The functionality of public-offered APIs is limited.


[submit a features request] <https://github.com/micl2e2/mafa/issues/new>


Contributing
============

  Mafa is still in early development, any contribution is welcomed!


License
=======

  Mafa is proudly licensed under GPLv3.

  See LICENSE-GPL for details.