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Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

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Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#21

Post by mromanuk »

jquintard wrote: post #15
bestinterest wrote: post #13

Is this a native Swift app or Electron based app?

The iOS app is native Swift. The desktop app is in Electron. But we've taken another approach for the Electron app not to become as slow as Slack or Notion. We know many people complain about that. To give just one example. The parser in our console has not been written manually in Javascript. Instead we wrote it in Ocaml ( https://ocaml.org/ ) and we generate the Javascript. This allows us to have a code that is mor…

Speed is not the problem with JS and Electron, it's the broken UX and expected behavior from a native app.

I've installed it and before moving it to my app folder, I tried to run it (I always do this with new apps). A popup appeared with the title "A JavaScript error occurred in the main process" (weird behavior), I didn't read the content at first, so I closed it and reopened the app again (fast fingers reached cmd-q). Later I read the message asking to move to the App folder first.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#22

Post by alexandargyurov »

orangefarm wrote: post #20
alexandargyurov wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built and app called Life Tracker[0] a while back, it's aim was to track your mood and have everything in one place. My blue sky goal was to reach something like life.so. It's good to see people working in this space, though I feel as if sometimes the scope can be wayy to big. Everyone has different types of workflows, so I guess for a product to be used by a lot of people, it has to allow for as many possible cust…

Hey Alex, very cool project! What made you pause working on it? You are making a great point. There is an inherent trade-off between customisability and simplicity. That is not necessarily a problem though because I think there are different target groups depending on where your product is on this scale. I like to think of productivity software as a pair of shoes where everyone has their preferred size and fit. That…

I like that analogy. Works nicely with having multiple products that do the same thing.

> What made you pause working on it?

I lost interest in building it, I still use it everyday but now I'm just waiting (hoping) that I'll eventually get back to it.

I've signed up to the beta, definitely keep me updated :)

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#23

Post by criddell »

orangefarm wrote: post #20
alexandargyurov wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built and app called Life Tracker[0] a while back, it's aim was to track your mood and have everything in one place. My blue sky goal was to reach something like life.so. It's good to see people working in this space, though I feel as if sometimes the scope can be wayy to big. Everyone has different types of workflows, so I guess for a product to be used by a lot of people, it has to allow for as many possible cust…

Hey Alex, very cool project! What made you pause working on it? You are making a great point. There is an inherent trade-off between customisability and simplicity. That is not necessarily a problem though because I think there are different target groups depending on where your product is on this scale. I like to think of productivity software as a pair of shoes where everyone has their preferred size and fit. That…

Are you happy with how the application looks and behaves on the Mac?

Apple is clearly moving to having iOS apps work on the Mac. Do you think the iOS Routine app would work on the Mac?

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#24

Post by jquintard »

criddell wrote: post #23
orangefarm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Alex, very cool project! What made you pause working on it? You are making a great point. There is an inherent trade-off between customisability and simplicity. That is not necessarily a problem though because I think there are different target groups depending on where your product is on this scale. I like to think of productivity software as a pair of shoes where everyone has their preferred size and fit. That…

Are you happy with how the application looks and behaves on the Mac? Apple is clearly moving to having iOS apps work on the Mac. Do you think the iOS Routine app would work on the Mac?

That's a very good point. Definitely Apple's direction.

I think it will take quite some time to reunite both world. But maybe indeed, eventually, we'll have only the iOS app that will run on both iPhones and macs.

Note thought that there will always be a big difference in experience. On desktop, we want the experience to be center-ed around the keyboard shortcut, the console and natural language.

On iOS (at least for most people), it's faster to use a well-crafter UI/UX than typing natural language. Though again, in the future, we might go in the direction of voice.

Time will tell :)

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#25

Post by [deleted] »

criddell wrote: post #23
orangefarm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Alex, very cool project! What made you pause working on it? You are making a great point. There is an inherent trade-off between customisability and simplicity. That is not necessarily a problem though because I think there are different target groups depending on where your product is on this scale. I like to think of productivity software as a pair of shoes where everyone has their preferred size and fit. That…

Are you happy with how the application looks and behaves on the Mac? Apple is clearly moving to having iOS apps work on the Mac. Do you think the iOS Routine app would work on the Mac?

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#26

Post by orangefarm »

criddell wrote: post #23
orangefarm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Alex, very cool project! What made you pause working on it? You are making a great point. There is an inherent trade-off between customisability and simplicity. That is not necessarily a problem though because I think there are different target groups depending on where your product is on this scale. I like to think of productivity software as a pair of shoes where everyone has their preferred size and fit. That…

Are you happy with how the application looks and behaves on the Mac? Apple is clearly moving to having iOS apps work on the Mac. Do you think the iOS Routine app would work on the Mac?

Reading all the negative sentiment on HN about Electron beforehand I was a bit concerned about picking it for the desktop app but now I am positively surprised to be honest.

I totally understand that Electron's memory footprint is not acceptable for very small apps that only serve as a utility. For Life though, which is supposed to replace 2-3 other apps, a memory footprint of ~300mb seems fine to me. In-app performance is also good.

I cannot say anything about the iOS Routine app because I have not tried it yet.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#27

Post by jbverschoor »

Warning - google accounts only. What's the deal with all these google-only apps? And on the other hand the de-googling of everybody on HN. It's super annoying, and basically forces you to use a throwaway google account.

Also, with the whole supplychain security, why not just also promote your webapp, instead of a bundled electron app?

###

In order for Routine to provide the value you are looking for, it needs access to some of the Google APIs, most specifically the following:

Google Account

Google Calendar

Google Tasks

Google Drive

Your data privacy is paramount to us. We will NEVER share, sell or use your data in any way that could violate your trust in Routine.

The reputation of the founders (Julien Quintard and Quentin Hocquet), the investors and its employees are on the line. We hold ourselves to the highest of standards

####

No it's not, as I have no idea who you are. Also, you might say you'll never share, but what about some misconfigured backend? The investors invest in your company and take no liability. That's the whole purpose of a limited liability company

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#28

Post by criddell »

jquintard wrote: post #24
criddell wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you happy with how the application looks and behaves on the Mac? Apple is clearly moving to having iOS apps work on the Mac. Do you think the iOS Routine app would work on the Mac?

That's a very good point. Definitely Apple's direction. I think it will take quite some time to reunite both world. But maybe indeed, eventually, we'll have only the iOS app that will run on both iPhones and macs. Note thought that there will always be a big difference in experience. On desktop, we want the experience to be center-ed around the keyboard shortcut, the console and natural language. On iOS (at least for…

> On iOS (at least for most people)

Are you assuming a phone here or including the 12" iPad Pro with a keyboard?

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#29

Post by candiddevmike »

If you're looking for something similar to this (tasks, calendars, wiki), along with budgeting, recipe management and more, checkout Domestica: https://about.domestica.app. Works on web/android/iOS, can be self hosted, and google sign in is optional.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#30

Post by jquintard »

jbverschoor wrote: post #27

Warning - google accounts only. What's the deal with all these google-only apps? And on the other hand the de-googling of everybody on HN. It's super annoying, and basically forces you to use a throwaway google account. Also, with the whole supplychain security, why not just also promote your webapp, instead of a bundled electron app? ### In order for Routine to provide the value you are looking for, it needs access…

We prefer to warn users instead of just using their Google Account.

As for why we use Google services. It's because most professionals do use Google Calendar. Some don't, we understand. We might serve them in the future but we have to start somewhere.

We advertise the desktop app (instead of the Web app) because Routine is intended to be used through a desktop-wide keyboard shortcut so you can capture thoughts and tasks from anywhere. A Web app requires that you switch to your browser, then find the right tab and click it to then be able to interact with the Web app. We believe it is too slow for a productivity tool. But some people do not have a choice (Windows) this is why we've answered them.

If you do not trust our service, we understand. We don't force you to use it. It's obviously your right.

But just to make things clear (which we explain in the Privacy section), all tasks are stored in your Google Tasks account. All events are stored in your Google Calendar. And all your notes are in your Google Drive. This means we store no data on our servers (for now at least).

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