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Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation

vimacapp.com

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Re: Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation

#2

Post by dexterleng »

Hello all! I am a student from Singapore who was introduced to Vimium by a friend two years ago. Vimac is my attempt to implement Vimium on an OS level.

I have shared this app on Reddit about a year ago. Since then, the notable changes would be a major performance buff in webkit/electron, force keyboard layout, and reducing the overwhelming no. of hints to what is just "clickable".

It is open source at https://github.com/dexterleng/vimac/.

Do let me know if you have any questions!

Re: Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation

#3

Post by nikivi »

dexterleng wrote: post #2

Hello all! I am a student from Singapore who was introduced to Vimium by a friend two years ago. Vimac is my attempt to implement Vimium on an OS level. I have shared this app on Reddit about a year ago. Since then, the notable changes would be a major performance buff in webkit/electron, force keyboard layout, and reducing the overwhelming no. of hints to what is just "clickable". It is open source at https://github…

One issue I had with running this aside from it taking quite a lot of CPU is that when opening Discord, I'd always get a warning that I am using a screen reader.

Was it solved in new versions?

Re: Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation

#4

Post by dexterleng »

nikivi wrote: post #3
dexterleng wrote: post #2

Hello all! I am a student from Singapore who was introduced to Vimium by a friend two years ago. Vimac is my attempt to implement Vimium on an OS level. I have shared this app on Reddit about a year ago. Since then, the notable changes would be a major performance buff in webkit/electron, force keyboard layout, and reducing the overwhelming no. of hints to what is just "clickable". It is open source at https://github…

One issue I had with running this aside from it taking quite a lot of CPU is that when opening Discord, I'd always get a warning that I am using a screen reader. Was it solved in new versions?

> it taking quite a lot of CPU

Yes that is fixed.

The reason for slow performance + high cpu usage on electron/webkit apps was just the sheer amount of mach ipc calls (from the many many layers) needed to be made to fetch the entire UI element tree.

This has been fixed two days ago Heres the solution for those interested: https://github.com/dexterleng/vimac/pull/190

I was also using a bunch of async queues instead of just a single NSThread which likely contributed to high cpu usage, and that has also been fixed.

> warning that I am using a screen reader.

Nope, you should get this warning, although it was a one time prompt for me. This is because Accessibility is opt-in for electron apps for performance reasons, and I have to ask for it through setting the AXManualAccessibility attribute (see https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/accessibility#assistive...), which I guess triggers the prompt.

Re: Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation

#6

Post by atsaloli »

dexterleng wrote: post #2

Hello all! I am a student from Singapore who was introduced to Vimium by a friend two years ago. Vimac is my attempt to implement Vimium on an OS level. I have shared this app on Reddit about a year ago. Since then, the notable changes would be a major performance buff in webkit/electron, force keyboard layout, and reducing the overwhelming no. of hints to what is just "clickable". It is open source at https://github…

Thank you!! Can’t wait to try this out.

Re: Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation

#7

Post by dexterleng »

asjldkfin wrote: post #5

Love this app. Absolutely check it out if you are serious about keyboard navigation. The only suggestion I’d make is to have the cursor return to its old position after an action. But it’s a minor nitpick.

I'm glad you like it!

> cursor return to its old position after an action

Will do!

Re: Show HN: Vimac – Productive macOS keyboard-driven navigation

#8

Post by fny »

dexterleng wrote: post #4
nikivi wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One issue I had with running this aside from it taking quite a lot of CPU is that when opening Discord, I'd always get a warning that I am using a screen reader. Was it solved in new versions?

> it taking quite a lot of CPU Yes that is fixed. The reason for slow performance + high cpu usage on electron/webkit apps was just the sheer amount of mach ipc calls (from the many many layers) needed to be made to fetch the entire UI element tree. This has been fixed two days ago Heres the solution for those interested: https://github.com/dexterleng/vimac/pull/190 I was also using a bunch of async queues instead of…

Why did you choose to use electron for something so specific to MacOS?

Awesome project by the way. This will save my wrists from a lot of pain.

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