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Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

hnbuddy.io

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Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#51

Post by lobster_johnson »

Looks pretty good! This could be a competitor to MiniHack [1], the Hacker News client I'm using right now.

Unfortunately, I just can't read discussions that are collapsed by default. Way too much clicking — some threads have hundreds of comments, often deeply nested.

I also think you could spend some time on colour and font choices. It's faded and hard to read, with almost nothing prominent. HNBuddy (https://i.imgur.com/cEPrInb.png) vs MiniHack (https://i.imgur.com/ED4YXte.png). I'd like the title font to be more legible, and the number of comments should be much more prominent. I often decide whether to read a story and/or thread based on the number of comments.

I do like that there's a way to get to the comments after clicking on a story. MiniHack doesn't have this.

Offline, opportunistic fetching and caching of comments would be good. Like the sibling poster, I read HN on the subway, where there's spotty cell service.

As an aside, since you're not charging for this app, perhaps it would be a good idea to make the code open source? I've been through multiple HN clients, and they all tend to stagnate over time. Putting the code on Github and accepting PRs would help avoid this.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/minihack/id631108846?mt=8

Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#52

Post by Zaheer »

Nicely done! Few notes:

1. Please have an option to turn off the reader function. I'd like to go straight to the URL rather than a parsed reader.

2. Main page is a little bit busy. Would recommend playing with the font size / weight. The first thing most people do is skim through the headlines, having kearning / a higher weight of font would help with that.

3. I find it odd that the url / time posted is above the title. Would be nice the match the main HN page and place that below the title. Just changes the mental model slightly enough to be annoying.

Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#53

Post by tsucres »

kalyanganjam wrote: post #49

I currently use the web app and phone app from http://hn.premii.com/ I just installed HNBuddy, It's equally good. I'll use it for few days before I decide to switch. What I will miss from Premii app if/when I switch. By default, Loads article in Text(pocket/readibility) mode instead of actual web page. 90% of the links I click are articles (save for the Show HN ) Integration with pocket to save articles for offline r…

I had planned to integrate Pocket.. I don't know why I forgot about it.

Note though that:

1. There's a built in "reader" equivalent to pocket/readability. I actually open-sourced this module [1]. It uses MercuryApi (the successor of Readability) [2]

2. it's possible to bookmark articles: this action saves them even for offline reading (you have to open/load the articles at least once though).

Concerning your last idea, I find it difficult to integrate it in the current UI without overwhelming it. Maybe if I add an option (as it was suggested in another comment) to choose between a "detailed" and a "dense" list, then I'll think to this feature.

Anyway, thank you for your detailed feedback!

[1] https://github.com/tsucres/SwiftyMercuryReady

[2] https://mercury.postlight.com/web-parser/

Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#54

Post by pmilla1606 »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #48
stenl wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is there no internet in the subway in NYC? I always found that annoying.

Almost all subway stations have cell towers now, which works great, but the reception in the tunnels between stations is non-existent.

Exactly. Therefore switching comment threads while in the tunnels doesn't work with other HN clients.

Maybe this is just old, ingrained behavior of mine but I like to load up a bunch of threads before the train arrives and then read while underway.

Also, trying to fetch new comments at a station that happens to not get LTE usually fails and leaves me reading-material-less.

Maybe I should bring a book.

Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#55

Post by tsucres »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #51

Looks pretty good! This could be a competitor to MiniHack [1], the Hacker News client I'm using right now. Unfortunately, I just can't read discussions that are collapsed by default. Way too much clicking — some threads have hundreds of comments, often deeply nested. I also think you could spend some time on colour and font choices. It's faded and hard to read, with almost nothing prominent. HNBuddy ( https://i.imgur…

I already planned on adding an option to expand all the comments by default. I recently updated the commenting module [1] to easily allow this. So it will most certainly be shipped with the next update!

Concerning your last thought, I want to keep all the rights on the source code (at least for now, and as long as I'll have the time and the motivation to maintain it), so I won't release it. However, note that several of the components that I used for this project are open source and PRs are welcome on their GitHub pages.

I took note of everything else you said! Thank you for your constructive feedback!

[1] https://github.com/tsucres/SwiftyComments

Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#56

Post by lobster_johnson »

tsucres wrote: post #55
lobster_johnson wrote: post #51

Looks pretty good! This could be a competitor to MiniHack [1], the Hacker News client I'm using right now. Unfortunately, I just can't read discussions that are collapsed by default. Way too much clicking — some threads have hundreds of comments, often deeply nested. I also think you could spend some time on colour and font choices. It's faded and hard to read, with almost nothing prominent. HNBuddy ( https://i.imgur…

I already planned on adding an option to expand all the comments by default. I recently updated the commenting module [1] to easily allow this. So it will most certainly be shipped with the next update! Concerning your last thought, I want to keep all the rights on the source code (at least for now, and as long as I'll have the time and the motivation to maintain it), so I won't release it. However, note that several…

Thanks! Here's a super quick mockup of a style I think would be more legible (Helvetica, since my Mac doesn't have San Francisco): https://i.imgur.com/IvERHL7.png

Less real estate used for timestamp, use dedicated colours for comment and upvote counts, and a larger font and thicker weight for the headline.

I hope you change your mind about opening the code.

Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#59

Post by tsucres »

willyyr wrote: post #57

Looks nice! Have been using another client till now. One question though. Why do I have to enter my credentials directly in the app? The app I'm using now uses kind of an OAuth flow which makes me feel better somehow.

I don't know what app you're talking about, but I find the fact that it uses OAuth disturbing: in my knowledge, HN doesn't officially support OAuth. So your app must interact with a third party endpoint. (I may be wrong here, it's just speculation). In any cases, it doesn't seem more trustworthy than typing your credential "directly in the app".

HNBuddy interacts with the HN website through a web scraper that is open source [1]. Though, as discussed in another comment, I can't really give you any proof that the code of this scraper is the actual code built in the app.

Anyway, if you don't trust me, you can still use the app as a simple reader :)

[1] https://github.com/tsucres/HNScraper

Re: Show HN: HNBuddy – A fast and elegant HN client for iOS

#60

Post by avtar »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #56
tsucres wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already planned on adding an option to expand all the comments by default. I recently updated the commenting module [1] to easily allow this. So it will most certainly be shipped with the next update! Concerning your last thought, I want to keep all the rights on the source code (at least for now, and as long as I'll have the time and the motivation to maintain it), so I won't release it. However, note that several…

Thanks! Here's a super quick mockup of a style I think would be more legible (Helvetica, since my Mac doesn't have San Francisco): https://i.imgur.com/IvERHL7.png Less real estate used for timestamp, use dedicated colours for comment and upvote counts, and a larger font and thicker weight for the headline. I hope you change your mind about opening the code.

I'm assuming 'uptown' is a typo in your mockup?
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