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Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

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Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#41

Post by awakeasleep »

UqWBcuFx6NV4r wrote: post #37
poisonborz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making 1 click to access is faster than typing the app name in finder. Dock is usually full and used for different type of apps. Makes also constantly visible output possible with standard ui patterns.

OK, thanks. We understand what a menu bar is. How is this conducive to the typical usage pattern of an app like this?

Are you saying you wish this was a desktop app and you would just open it occasionally when curious?

If so, it feels like a needlessly indirect and combative way to go about it.

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#42

Post by piskov »

captainbland wrote: post #7
kmmbvnr_ wrote: post #6

Could it be just a console utility?

Yeah I like the sound of the functionality but I don't like the idea of it taking up menu bar space. Console utility would be good or even a gui that can be quickly launched through spotlight

> I don't like the idea of it taking up menu bar space

You know you can close it? :-)

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#43

Post by zimpenfish »

denkmoon wrote: post #23

I get that the connectors are identical but I find it odd that people find it so challenging. Thunderbolt is the thick and short cable. If it's not thick it's not gonna work well and if it's over a metre it's not gonna work well. cf my pile of thin long "basic" usb c cables.

Great, and what about non-Thunderbolt cables? How do I distinguish between power only, USB 2, USB 2+PD, and USB 3.2 cables? I've got a whole pile of cables that, without my Treedix tester, are indistinguishable re: functionality and support.

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#45

Post by kranner »

UqWBcuFx6NV4r wrote: post #37
poisonborz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making 1 click to access is faster than typing the app name in finder. Dock is usually full and used for different type of apps. Makes also constantly visible output possible with standard ui patterns.

OK, thanks. We understand what a menu bar is. How is this conducive to the typical usage pattern of an app like this?

For some reason the app supports a separate standalone window mode as well [0]. It's not clear why the developer took the trouble to support two different modes when the menubar mode doesn't seem to add anything (like a live-updating icon for throughput).

Well, I can think of one reason why it wasn't that much more trouble. François Chollet had a nice tweet [1] on why removing human cognitive friction is resulting in needless software complexity.

[0] https://github.com/darrylmorley/whatcable/blob/main/Sources/...

[1] https://x.com/fchollet/status/2045929951539707957

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#46

Post by bichiliad »

captainbland wrote: post #7
kmmbvnr_ wrote: post #6

Could it be just a console utility?

Yeah I like the sound of the functionality but I don't like the idea of it taking up menu bar space. Console utility would be good or even a gui that can be quickly launched through spotlight

You might like Ice: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#47

Post by geordieboozer »

pimeys wrote: post #40

Cool. Just want to chime in that I wanted to see how quickly GPT-5.5 can turn this into a KDE Plasma 6 Plasmoid. Took about 10 minutes and two dollars, and now I have a nice QML app showing the same information in my taskbar. Just wanted to say this because I feel it's really crazy that I can just do this today...

To save me 10 mins and $2, is this posted to GitHub somewhere?

Re: Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables

#48

Post by rustyhancock »

geordieboozer wrote: post #47
pimeys wrote: post #40

Cool. Just want to chime in that I wanted to see how quickly GPT-5.5 can turn this into a KDE Plasma 6 Plasmoid. Took about 10 minutes and two dollars, and now I have a nice QML app showing the same information in my taskbar. Just wanted to say this because I feel it's really crazy that I can just do this today...

To save me 10 mins and $2, is this posted to GitHub somewhere?

Absolutely this is worth packaging for KDE.

Although I imagine if you don't have the motivation to make it in the first place, you likely don't have the motivation to package it.

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