[HN Gopher] Show HN: Open sourcing Harmonic, my Android Hacker N...
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Show HN: Open sourcing Harmonic, my Android Hacker News client
Author : swesnow
Score : 194 points
Date : 2023-05-23 16:56 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| Reubend wrote:
| Hey there Simon, thanks for writing this great app. Although you
| said that you wouldn't call the architecture of the app a beauty,
| I think the UI really stands out as a pretty app that provides
| only the features that are really needed without delving into
| anything unnecessary. Really well done and congratulations on the
| OSS release.
| swesnow wrote:
| Thank you! I am glad you appreciate the choice of focus! It
| does however make tweaking the app a bit harder at times but as
| long as it looks and behaves good I am happy as well :)
| ugh123 wrote:
| Great project! Would be nice to have screenshots in the
| README.md.
| swesnow wrote:
| Thanks! You're right that the README needs a little
| prettifying, I added a link to the Play Store for now where
| screenshots are available but for sure it would be better to
| have something in the README as well.
| nickexyz wrote:
| Been using Glider on Fdroid for quite a while, but giving
| Harmonic a try now. Love it so far, great work and thanks for
| open sourcing!
| swesnow wrote:
| Glider is a nice app for sure and I totally get the F-droid
| appeal - nice to hear that you are still able to be impressed
| by the app :)
| ottod wrote:
| Thank you for Harmonic, it is beautiful. Open sourced just makes
| it perfect.
| KomoD wrote:
| Happy to hear that, Harmonic is great
| FireInsight wrote:
| I do all my HN browsing on this "minimalist" mobile client called
| Glider. It's actually great, feels modern and you upvote and
| reply with swipe actions instead of buttons, which I actually
| like.
| thereticent wrote:
| Lately I've used the lite app with Hermit, but I'll give
| Harmonic a shot.
| Ashymad wrote:
| I've tried glider for some time but it had a very unpleasant
| tendency to freeze my phone completely. I've since switched to
| Hacki which is really responsive and has similar swipe
| controls.
| esperkin39 wrote:
| I'm reading this on Harmonic from a Chromebook right now. Thanks
| for all the hard work!
| swesnow wrote:
| Hey HN!
|
| I'm the developer of one of the most popular Android clients for
| HN, Harmonic for Hacker News. Over the years I have recieved many
| requests to open source the app which I am finally doing - sorry
| about taking so long :)
|
| Having been very busy working on my PhD during the last two years
| - Harmonic has not recieved the attention it deserves. I
| therefore hope that open sourcing it can give it a new lease on
| life. I also hope that by posting here many of the nice people
| who have reached out to me will notice that the app is finally
| open source. I'm also happy to answer questions about the app but
| cannot make any hard promises about future features.
|
| (As a note; I wouldn't call the architecture of the app a beauty
| by any means - it is very much cobbled together using my
| (somewhat outdated) knowledge about Android development.)
|
| -- Simon
| whalesalad wrote:
| Sometimes it can be hard to let something like this go. Kudos
| to open sourcing!
| swesnow wrote:
| You're very right - and it's kind of hard to explain even to
| myself why. I'm glad its done now and people seem to be
| actually looking into the code
| ejj28 wrote:
| Cobbled together or not, the app is functional, has an awesome
| UI and I love that I don't have to leave the app to actually
| read articles. Awesome work!
| swesnow wrote:
| Thank you! I agree that those are for sure the most important
| things. Glad it does the trick for you :)
| dlojudice wrote:
| Thank you for building Harmonic. It's been my HN client for
| years. I will definitely take a look on the code and try to
| contribute.
| swesnow wrote:
| You're very welcome! Always nice to hear that someone has
| been happy with the app for a long time. Would be very cool
| if you could make some form of contribution. Again I
| apologize for the code being somewhat of a mess - it was not
| made with open source in mind but if you have any issues I'll
| try to help you out :)
| rounakdatta wrote:
| Thank you, can't express how beautiful the Harmonic client is.
| swesnow wrote:
| Thanks! I don't have any design background but have spent a lot
| of time zooming into pixels and comparing alternatives so it's
| nice to hear that the choices resonate with others
| lostin wrote:
| I love Harmonic! Browsing HN is so much more enjoyable with it
| than with the website. The UI is great too. Thanks for making and
| open sourcing the app!
| swesnow wrote:
| That is very kind of you to say - you're welcome!
| XMasterrrr wrote:
| That's the client I use on daily basis and it's been one of my
| favorite apps
| swesnow wrote:
| Glad to hear that it is doing its thing for you and that you
| enjoy it!
| brianjking wrote:
| Installing now, thank you!
| swesnow wrote:
| You're welcome, hope you enjoy it!
| mcdonje wrote:
| This is my daily driver. It's great! Thanks for your work on it.
| swesnow wrote:
| You're welcome! I use it daily as well and like the idea that
| others are too :)
| rockemsockem wrote:
| Been using it for years, fantastic that it's going to be open-
| source now too!
| swesnow wrote:
| Fun that you've followed along through the updates :) And it
| feels good to finally put something "real" out as open source
| gcanyon wrote:
| Silly question perhaps, but (iOS user here, I can't install it)
| what are the primary advantages of this over just using the web
| site?
| occz wrote:
| Not having to load a whole browser runtime has some nice
| performance benefits to it, which makes the whole experience
| just kind of feel a bit better.
| tanduv wrote:
| oo I've been using this on my daily commute. Thanks for building
| it!
| swesnow wrote:
| You're very welcome, it's great to hear you're enjoying it!
| kretaceous wrote:
| Harmonic has been my favourite, but only as an HN client but as
| an overall app. Have been using it for ~2 years now. Huge thank
| you for building this and thank you for open sourcing it!
| swesnow wrote:
| Wow that is very kind of you to say! Maybe it's because I've
| spent so much time with it that I see the cracks but it makes
| me glad that you view it so fondly :)
| CuteDepravity wrote:
| I tried it for a few minutes, I really like it But the lack of
| widget support is a deal breaker for me I usually just unlock my
| phone, see top stories directly and then click on one of the to
| open Materialistic (HN app, haven't been updated in a few years
| do it got delisted from the play store)
| artogahr wrote:
| I'm reading this on Harmonic right now, and I've been
| recommending it to everyone since I've discovered it. Thanks for
| the great work!
| swesnow wrote:
| You're welcome and thanks for spreading the good word :)
| wantguns wrote:
| I usually refrain from installing apps from Aurora Store instead
| of F-Droid, but Harmonic is the one app for which I oblige.
|
| Thanks a lot for open-sourcing it.
|
| I wait for the day, where I can finally get a good HN client at
| F-Droid :)
| swesnow wrote:
| Good that I could convince you :) I hope to get around to
| posting it on F-Droid soon, it doesn't seem like too much work
| eastof wrote:
| Posting from Materialistic which I downloaded from F-Droid. On
| CalyxOS too
| levidos wrote:
| Glider is quite nice
| skeaker wrote:
| This is what I often use, though I have noticed some
| weirdness where votes won't stick despite the app saying that
| they did and comment threads that are too big constantly
| refresh until all the comments are loaded. Might give some of
| the other apps in this thread a try.
| MartinodF wrote:
| First of all, thank you for creating this app. A couple of years
| ago you've finally put an end to my decade of looking for a
| decent HN client for Android and I haven't looked back. I
| actually run Harmonic in Windows Subsystem for Android and on
| ChromeOS to use it as my primary way of browsing HN on all
| devices!
|
| That said, if you have any spare time to dedicate to it, it would
| be great if you could open some issues on GitHub to express what
| you have been wanting to do but didn't manage to. I don't have
| any gripes with the app as-is (other than adding Material You
| support, but that's likely to require some large changes) and it
| would be great to have some guidance on what would be useful to
| contribute.
|
| Thanks!
| swesnow wrote:
| Wow I never thought anyone would be so hardcore as to actually
| run Harmonic on windows subsystem and Chrome OS - I figured not
| a lot of people don't use the big screen mode and I mostly made
| the tablet changes for when I bought myself an Android tablet a
| couple of years back to use Harmonic more comfortably in the
| couch.
|
| The GitHub issues is a very good point! I have a long Google
| Keep list with things I've been meaning to do and hadn't even
| thought about opening issues to guide to help. I'll try to get
| some of those up tomorrow :)
| dagorenouf wrote:
| What's the best alternative for iOS?
| Mystery-Machine wrote:
| Awesome! Been using it for about a year now. (I'm writing this
| from Harmonic)
|
| There's one functionality of another HN app that I really liked
| that Harmonic doesn't have - mark topic as visited when I scroll
| past it in the topic list view. I loved this feature and I really
| miss it because it allowed me to quickly see all the new topics
| that I haven't seen before. All the topics that I scrolled past I
| either visited or are not of my interest.
|
| I'll see if I can add this functionality to the app and a
| preference for enabling/disabling it.
|
| Thank you so much for building such a beautiful app!
| raybb wrote:
| Small suggestion: link to the play store (and fdroid?) From the
| readme for easier access.
| swesnow wrote:
| Good thought, fixed that now, thanks!
| niederman wrote:
| Love Harmonic! Writing this reply on it right now!
| swesnow wrote:
| Thank you, I hope you'll keep loving it! And good that the
| comment system is still working :)
| ejj28 wrote:
| Been using Harmonic daily for a few years now and I love it so
| much, it's an incredibly well made app. Thanks for making it,
| awesome that it's open source now as well!
| swesnow wrote:
| That makes me very happy to read! And I'm glad that making it
| open source can increase your enjoyment
| kawemi wrote:
| I absolutely love Harmonic! Great UI/UX and nice attention to
| details. Almost prefer browsing HN using it rather than the
| website :) Thank you for open sourcing!
| swesnow wrote:
| Thanks you and thanks for noticing the details :)
| j_french wrote:
| Another daily Harmonic user of a few years standing here. I tried
| a good few HN clients until I clicked with Harmonic and never
| looked back. I find it to be one of those rare apps that works so
| well and unobtrusively that you hardly notice it until it dawns
| on you how good it is. Great work, thanks for making and open-
| sourcing it!
| swesnow wrote:
| Always good to hear from the day 1 OG:s :) I also went through
| the ritual of trying almost all available HN clients back in
| 2020 and being unhappy and Harmonic was the result. I'm glad it
| worked out the same way for you!
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(page generated 2023-05-23 23:01 UTC)