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GitHub Desktop is now available

github.com

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Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#211

Post by victorhooi »

StavrosK wrote: post #137
blkhp19 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OS X and Linux are not the same OS. The entire stack for writing GUI applications is completely different - as different as writing an iOS app vs. an Android app. OS X and Linux don't share the same kernel, the same foundation frameworks, or the same UI frameworks. The entire application would have to be written from scratch. If they're really ambitious they could probably share some Objective-C business logic, but a…

They have a Windows version. Linux isn't less like OS X than Windows is.

They are using the Cocoa toolkit on OSX - that is a Mac-specific thing and isn't available on Linux.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#212

Post by dharma1 »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #89
StavrosK wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the UI written in now? Doesn't Qt work for all three platforms?

It's using Cocoa on OS X and WPF on Windows, in other words the UI toolkits that are native to their respective platforms. Qt indeed works everywhere, but by using it you make the tradeoff that your app doesn't really feel native anywhere (except maybe on Linux with KDE). In short, using Qt would mean making concessions on UI quality.

I don't think non-cocoa or non-WPF necessarily means worse quality, you just have to do a bit more custom work. Take Slack (using the Electron framework), or Telegram's Qt client.

Having said that, Qt Quick Controls could definitely be improved by having better default desktop QML UI widgets.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#213

Post by [deleted] »

hueving wrote: post #208
imbriaco wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least the #2 and #7 (by number of commits) committers to Git are employed by GitHub. They're both very consistent contributors and have been for a very long time. You specifically said that GitHub does not participate in the open source community and I think I've amply demonstrated that you're incorrect. If you'd like to continue to argue the point, I'd appreciate some facts.

You're right, they hired people that were already participating in the git community to continue to participate in the community. This is better than nothing because it ensures that they are employed, but it's a net zero effect for the git community and isn't what I would call participating because they aren't bringing anything new to the table. It's similar to Microsoft hiring a bunch of Linux developers to continue…

[deleted]

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#214

Post by technomancy »

harel wrote: post #2

Its a shame that a Linux version is not included. A significant volume of developers work on Linux. If doing a multi platform application, why exclude it?

My guess is they don't bother with Linux systems because proper application packaging on Linux OSes is source-centric.

They've made the choice not to offer their code as free software, so that would mean it would be a headache to support on systems that value software freedom.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#215

Post by onewordnowait2 »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #184
yellowapple wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's likely they felt it's not worth the time This seems strange. Did they not use Electron or Atom Shell or whatever it's called to build Github Desktop? If so, then is it not relatively trivial to create a GNU/Linux (or at least non-OSX-centric Unix) tarball of all the Javascript or whatever? If not so, then why not?

Because Electron is heavy and clunky. It makes no sense for a simple wrapper around a tiny (less than 1MB) commandline tool to have memory and CPU requirements on par with those of an instance of Chromium with a javascript-laden page open in a tab.

Downloaded it, libcef.dll + many other MBs of browser. But no nodejs. Weird.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#216

Post by kitsunesoba »

dharma1 wrote: post #212
kitsunesoba wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's using Cocoa on OS X and WPF on Windows, in other words the UI toolkits that are native to their respective platforms. Qt indeed works everywhere, but by using it you make the tradeoff that your app doesn't really feel native anywhere (except maybe on Linux with KDE). In short, using Qt would mean making concessions on UI quality.

I don't think non-cocoa or non-WPF necessarily means worse quality, you just have to do a bit more custom work. Take Slack (using the Electron framework), or Telegram's Qt client. Having said that, Qt Quick Controls could definitely be improved by having better default desktop QML UI widgets.

I use Slack on a daily basis and I can't say I'm happy with it being an Electron app. For what it does it's very resource intensive and the way it disregards a lot of its host OS conventions isn't cool. If I wanted a web app I'd open another browser tab; there's no need for a goofy wrapper with half-hearted OS integration.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#217

Post by boardwaalk »

Well, that update turned the app into flickering, unresponsive mess on my Mac (10.11). And I have to use some sort of old school contact form to report a bug to GitHub? I'm a bit incredulous.

I like GitHub for the basic "see what you're committing and commit it" work flow, using the command line otherwise, but I suppose I'll switch to Sourcetree for now.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#218

Post by imbriaco »

hueving wrote: post #208
imbriaco wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least the #2 and #7 (by number of commits) committers to Git are employed by GitHub. They're both very consistent contributors and have been for a very long time. You specifically said that GitHub does not participate in the open source community and I think I've amply demonstrated that you're incorrect. If you'd like to continue to argue the point, I'd appreciate some facts.

You're right, they hired people that were already participating in the git community to continue to participate in the community. This is better than nothing because it ensures that they are employed, but it's a net zero effect for the git community and isn't what I would call participating because they aren't bringing anything new to the table. It's similar to Microsoft hiring a bunch of Linux developers to continue…

I don't know why I'm responding, but I can't help myself. I guess it's the good old XKCD "Someone is wrong on the Internet" effect and I should know better. But.

They are paying people who would otherwise work on Git in their spare time to work on it full time. That is a net win for everyone who uses git.

I'm going to give up at this point and just accept the fact that you're going to spin it such that any commercial entity that uses open source and doesn't open source their core product is a parasite. I think you're wrong, but you're certainly entitled to your opinion.

You're not entitled to your own facts, though.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#220

Post by lucisferre »

My initial impression is that I like it, but I'm confused what "git sync" is. I've never done a "sync" before so I'm uncertain what will happen when I click the button.

Seriously, I get it, people don't love git's choice of verbs and syntax. Picking different ones arbitrarily helps no one however.

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