Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 86 posts

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#31

Post by judge2020 »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #10

This raises a question I've always wondered: How many of you prefer to run a native app rather than the web app? Personally I hate installing things on my desktop if there is a website because it is just another thing I have to manage. (Even more so because I have multiple Windows, Mac and Linux boxes I'm bouncing around between during the day and rather just have sync'd Firefox bookmarks than have to install s/w on…

I prefer PWAs since it combines the window-ness of regular applications with the security sandbox traits of websites in the browser.

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#32

Post by justaguy88 »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #10

This raises a question I've always wondered: How many of you prefer to run a native app rather than the web app? Personally I hate installing things on my desktop if there is a website because it is just another thing I have to manage. (Even more so because I have multiple Windows, Mac and Linux boxes I'm bouncing around between during the day and rather just have sync'd Firefox bookmarks than have to install s/w on…

I always prefer the native (so long as it's really native, not just electron)

I'm usually lost in a sea of browser tabs

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#33

Post by pcr910303 »

npunt wrote: post #28

Looks good but needs text zoom (cmd =/+ and cmd -). I'd also consider the sidebar include 'My Posts' and 'My Comments'. Maybe it has those, but I couldn't tell, as I turned off outgoing network access to firebase before logging in just to be on the safe side. Any reason you're connecting to firebase rather than storing preferences locally? I'm worried about my HN credentials being stolen.

Thanks for the feature requests! Will definitely add a text zoom feature and a ‘My Posts’ category.

> Any reason you're connecting to firebase rather than storing preferences locally?

All of your preferences are stored locally — the firebase connection is due to the official HN API[0] implemented on Firebase. Your HN credentials never leave the app (except for news.ycombinator.com) — it’s tucked in your keychain.

[0]: https://github.com/HackerNews/API

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#34

Post by [deleted] »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #10

This raises a question I've always wondered: How many of you prefer to run a native app rather than the web app? Personally I hate installing things on my desktop if there is a website because it is just another thing I have to manage. (Even more so because I have multiple Windows, Mac and Linux boxes I'm bouncing around between during the day and rather just have sync'd Firefox bookmarks than have to install s/w on…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#36

Post by kitsunesoba »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #10

This raises a question I've always wondered: How many of you prefer to run a native app rather than the web app? Personally I hate installing things on my desktop if there is a website because it is just another thing I have to manage. (Even more so because I have multiple Windows, Mac and Linux boxes I'm bouncing around between during the day and rather just have sync'd Firefox bookmarks than have to install s/w on…

I like native apps (as in, uses the host platform’s UI toolkit) where available, because it’s almost a given that the operating systems’s typography, color scheme, etc are more legible and less annoying than whatever choices were made by a website’s designer. This is especially important now that all major desktop OSes implement a dark mode, which many sites still lack.

Things like reader mode and user styles help a lot with that, but they’re both kind of clunky bolt-ons and in the case of userstyles, often manual since many sites don’t have any readily available.

A lot of this could be improved if browsers had restyling built in as a first class feature and site owners were incentivized to make their sites work with it.

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#37

Post by tasogare »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #10

This raises a question I've always wondered: How many of you prefer to run a native app rather than the web app? Personally I hate installing things on my desktop if there is a website because it is just another thing I have to manage. (Even more so because I have multiple Windows, Mac and Linux boxes I'm bouncing around between during the day and rather just have sync'd Firefox bookmarks than have to install s/w on…

Of course desktop software, as they are way better than web sites.

- don't need to create yet another account (and won't be deplatformed arbitrarily)

- my data stay in local and are not used in shaddy way by the service provider

- usable offline or with poor connection

- better performance

- I'm in control with upgrades

Webapps in general are hostile to the user and are just a way for the developer to take over (undue) control over the software usage and user data.

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#38

Post by krapp »

pcr910303 wrote: post #29
Naac wrote: post #11

Does the Algolia hackernews api ( the specific API this client uses ) still require you to query in a tree like fashion, every comment item id if you want an entire page of comments? Its extremely inefficient, to the point where I have a better time curling the HN web page and piping it through python beautifulsoup Regarding a native app vs the using the HN website. The HN website I think is pretty ideal for the type…

> Does the Algolia hackernews api ( the specific API this client uses ) still require you to query in a tree like fashion, every comment item id if you want an entire page of comments? I’m using two different APIs — the inefficient API that requires you querying in a tree fashion is the HN official API[0], but there’s also the Algolia API[1], which is much faster and gives a much sensible data shape. I also do actual…

Oh wow, I... really wish I'd known about that second API a while ago. I gave up on writing my own client because HN's API was so frustrating.

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#39

Post by tailspin2019 »

seany wrote: post #22
SavantIdiot wrote: post #10

This raises a question I've always wondered: How many of you prefer to run a native app rather than the web app? Personally I hate installing things on my desktop if there is a website because it is just another thing I have to manage. (Even more so because I have multiple Windows, Mac and Linux boxes I'm bouncing around between during the day and rather just have sync'd Firefox bookmarks than have to install s/w on…

I don't think I've ever picked the web interface over native as long as the native app is "really native"

Agreed, the “really native” bit is important!

Re: Show HN: I developed a native macOS Hacker News client

#40

Post by npunt »

pcr910303 wrote: post #33
npunt wrote: post #28

Looks good but needs text zoom (cmd =/+ and cmd -). I'd also consider the sidebar include 'My Posts' and 'My Comments'. Maybe it has those, but I couldn't tell, as I turned off outgoing network access to firebase before logging in just to be on the safe side. Any reason you're connecting to firebase rather than storing preferences locally? I'm worried about my HN credentials being stolen.

Thanks for the feature requests! Will definitely add a text zoom feature and a ‘My Posts’ category. > Any reason you're connecting to firebase rather than storing preferences locally? All of your preferences are stored locally — the firebase connection is due to the official HN API[0] implemented on Firebase. Your HN credentials never leave the app (except for news.ycombinator.com) — it’s tucked in your keychain. [0]…

Ah thank you for the clarification! Keychain is truly the 'Mac-assed' solution isn't it?

I know it's kind of a feature/property of HN to not implement notifications or other attention driving features but it'd be interesting to see this app periodically poll HN for any replies to My Posts / My Comments and generate at least sidebar number badges, if not app badges and system notifications. I'd implement a preference on the latter two though, in keeping with the spirit of not having HN turn completely into an attention grabbing social network for those that wish it not to be.

Post reply on HN