[HN Gopher] Show HN: macOS HNReader Application
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Show HN: macOS HNReader Application
Author : mattrighetti
Score : 60 points
Date : 2021-06-14 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| aluminum96 wrote:
| Is this your first Mac app? If so, how did you find the process
| of learning the platform?
|
| I've been thinking of writing a native Mac app for a while, but
| I'm put off by the bad things I hear about the docs and general
| learning experience.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| Well not exactly the first but I've experimented a lot with
| SwiftUI and this is entirely written with that.
|
| UI is probably the hardest part into an application, everything
| else is plain old style programming with algorithms, data
| strictures, GET requests etc.
|
| I would suggest to look at WWDC sessions about SwiftUI for what
| concerns the UI part, everything else has a very active
| community online that will give you a lot of resources to
| tackle pretty much everything.
| shajid wrote:
| Looks great! Does this have a search button?
| mattrighetti wrote:
| That is going to come, I've just started this project
| sam0x17 wrote:
| Note: despite the github link, it is not open source so no
| telling what's in the binary
|
| edit: now it is :)
| mattrighetti wrote:
| Never mind, published the code repo and created a link to it in
| the GitHub repo
| [deleted]
| mrehler wrote:
| I have the same issue with every HN app: no "past" support, or
| insufficient past support. That's the way I'm mainly browsing HN.
| kkirsche wrote:
| What do you mean by past? Your past interactions, eg lack of
| ability to engage other users related to things you've
| commented on? "Past" posts? Something else?
| ihuman wrote:
| I think they mean the "past" link at the top of the page. It
| takes you to https://news.ycombinator.com/front
| mattrighetti wrote:
| Will take that into account! Would you mind placing a feature
| request to the GitHub repo?
| mtmail wrote:
| It might not be obvious at first glance of the README file: There
| is an install binary release at
| https://github.com/mattrighetti/HNReaderApp/releases/
|
| Can you submit a link to https://github.com/cheeaun/awesome-
| hacker-news#mac-os ?
| mattrighetti wrote:
| Sure, will do right away!
| mattrighetti wrote:
| This is a macOS Hacker News reader, lightweight and clean. I
| would love to hear your opinions on this!
| kergonath wrote:
| Nice! It looks good, I'll try it for a while.
| sgt wrote:
| Code should ideally be on github as source code files, not
| inside a binary archive.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| I am not going to open source the project at the moment, I
| have to clean things up a bit before that. I'm probably gonna
| do that as soon as it reaches a good first RC
| tw04 wrote:
| I would imagine you're going to get a fraction of the users
| testing it that you're looking for then. I know I'm not
| going to put my username and password into a closed source
| app from a random stranger on the internet.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| At the moment it's just a reader so login is not yet
| available
| sgt wrote:
| Isn't this the source code? https://github.com/mattrighetti
| /HNReaderApp/archive/refs/tag...
| vlod wrote:
| Nope just the readme.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| Open sourced now since it seems highly requested, link in
| the readme!
| mattrighetti wrote:
| I have inserted the link to the source code in the
| readme, I need to clean things up a bit right now
| codetrotter wrote:
| Looks neat. I don't see any source code in the repository
| though?
| sgt wrote:
| It's closed source. He uses github to distribute the binary.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| Yes, give me a week and it will be open sourced. I just
| need to clean the code a bit
|
| Edit: open sourced it!
| imNotTheProb wrote:
| Why macOS?
| mattrighetti wrote:
| I only have apple devices and I enjoy developing apps in
| swift, way easier and less tedious than other systems imho.
| Also SwiftUI makes UI design a lot easier than standard
| JohnBooty wrote:
| My first thought is that I can only see a handful of HN topics
| at a time, versus 30 via the standard web interface.
|
| So, to me... in its current state this app would be a large
| downgrade.
|
| It's "nicer" looking than the web interface, but the web
| interface is fine for me. I don't need it to be pretty.
|
| For an HN app to be useful to me it would have to offer more
| information or features than the web interface.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| I've just started this, it will become more complex in the
| future with some help from the community
| njhaveri wrote:
| Neat idea! Do you plan to notarize the binary?
| mattrighetti wrote:
| I have never done that to be honest, if it's not a big hassle I
| could try to do it
| systemvoltage wrote:
| I think the browser HN UI is so good that it's difficult to
| switch to anything else even though I appreciate the effort that
| goes into building something like this.
| beervirus wrote:
| So what does this offer beyond just using a web browser?
| ultrarunner wrote:
| Looks like dark mode, for one. I'm also personally curious if
| there's an effect in breaking the "what time-wasting website
| should I let the browser autocomplete" habit that is so easy to
| cultivate (is "frequently visited" a dark pattern?)
| mattrighetti wrote:
| For the moment it's just a native HN reader, nothing more. But
| it's going to get more complex hopefully
| samatman wrote:
| Looking forward to seeing where you go with this!
|
| As some feedback: you only get one shot at Show HN, really.
| Or at least you _should_ only get one shot at it, you can
| work around this by submitting a different URL but that kind
| of thing is discouraged.
|
| You would have been better off waiting until you were ready
| to show the source code, and had at least a rough sketch of
| the features you were going to provide. It's going to be
| difficult to get useful feedback at this stage in the
| process.
|
| I hope you don't take this as discouragement, I like the idea
| of having a dedicated HN mac app, and look forward to seeing
| it again down the road.
| pvg wrote:
| I don't think it's strictly true that you only get one shot
| but agreed this app is too early in its development to
| receive meaningful feedback and the author should probably
| come back when it's somewhat more fleshed out - right now
| it's just a clickable list of direct article links that
| launch an external browser.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| The app is now open source at the link in OP :)
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(page generated 2021-06-14 23:00 UTC)