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Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

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Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#321

Post by mschrage »

simias wrote: post #306
12ian34 wrote: post #80

Nice website, but I wouldn't switch to this from Fish/Zsh on account of: 1. Cannot identify any killer features above what I already have with forever free tools with much larger support communities. 2. Less trust in you as a YC startup. What if you fail? What if you sell out? 3. Requirement of email. 4. Telemetry and privacy concerns raised by others. 5. Not available for Linux, and I get the feeling that Linux woul…

I agree with all of your points and I probably would never use this product. That being said regarding Linux support, given the fact that Fig effectively needs to hook into your terminal emulator and your shell to drive a custom overlay, it seems like it would be a huge headache to add support for Linux given how heterogeneous the terminal setups can be on the platform. Imagine having to support urxvt running zsh on…

Thanks for your insight here! We are still deciding the exact implementation, but completely agree - Linux is a challenge due to the heterogeneity of distros, window managers, compositors, etc.

Our macOS approach might not work everywhere.

Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#322

Post by JediPig »

design-material wrote: post #259
mschrage wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is the VC backing for another product and the CLI tool is just a PR thing? Autocomplete is our first product. The bigger vision that Fig can enable an ecosystem of terminal extensions. Here are some early prototypes we built [0] and here is the discussion from when we were posted on HN last summer [1]. > Is the business model just selling our data? We will never sell data. That just isn't the business we want to bu…

Why the fuck do you need my WORK email address with 2FA verification?

My thoughts exactly, and it was removed instantly it asked for my work email.

No, No, and no. matter fact, it earned itself a forever no. thx have a crap product launch.

Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#323

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

shaicoleman wrote: post #185
mwcampbell wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I think it's incumbent on us developers to be more willing to pay for things. We know now that free doesn't really work.

I'm willing to pay if it's on hacker friendly terms, e.g. something similar to the Sublime Text model: * No sign in/email required * Works offline * No subscription * Updates for 3 years included in price * Perpetual license for older versions * License per user, unlimited devices and operating systems, including home/work devices * License is just a matter of copying a file * No telemetry/phoning home without explic…

Sublime is special. I don't think anything can come close to it.

Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#325

Post by tharkun__ »

Spivak wrote: post #317
samblr wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wanted be a fly on the wall when Fig founders were pitching to these investors on how they are gonna make money. Can NOT this tool say to my employer - How many times I compile my code in a day ? When I get a compilation error - how quickly it gets to compiling state again ? Was the compilation error a trivial mistake ? How much time is spent between each commands ? How productive I am keying in command one af…

I think you misunderstand how tools like this sell, the enterprise offering will be fully supported integration of tools that are enterprisey (Cisco gear, Netapp, Fortinet, Xen, VMware, Veeam) and a hosted offering so teams can collaborate on scripts and snippets á la postman.

I saw the first few commands of the video on their site and I'm like "wait Wtf a visual representation of what hitting tab-tab does already? That can't be it"

But yes that's basically it. You have _all_ of this already and all it needs is for whatever tool you have to provide the "completion" definition file. The graphical nature of this makes it _less_ useful (as others have pointed out w/ regards to no Linux support). How this would sell to enterprise I do not get.

Kudos to them for getting funding for this tho. I wish I had the guts to take something that already exists better and free and ask for someone to pay me money to try and sell it to other people instead.

Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#326

Post by smsm42 »

12ian34 wrote: post #80

Nice website, but I wouldn't switch to this from Fish/Zsh on account of: 1. Cannot identify any killer features above what I already have with forever free tools with much larger support communities. 2. Less trust in you as a YC startup. What if you fail? What if you sell out? 3. Requirement of email. 4. Telemetry and privacy concerns raised by others. 5. Not available for Linux, and I get the feeling that Linux woul…

4 is a killer for me. I like the idea, I'd probably like the tool, but no way I'm installing a thing that sends out everything (or substantial part of) I type into CLI to the external server. Too much risk. I am ready to trust they mean well and make the maximum effort to make it work securely, but it's just not something I'd ever feel comfortable with.

Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#327

Post by tharkun__ »

Spivak wrote: post #316
dvt wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just adding, from their website: > Investors: We've raised several million dollars from amazing VCs like General Catalyst and Kleiner Perkins, and angels like Jason Warner, Adam Gross, Olivier Pomel, Scott Belsky, Will Gaybrick and a handful of other impressive dev tool founders and executives. The fact that a CLI tool raised millions of dollars while also being basically powered by open-source contributions is also…

I mean they’re trying to be JetBrains but for Bash so it makes total sense to me why it would be a many many millions of dollars effort. I think people forget that IDEs (which is essentially what this is) are a stupid amount of work. Then you have to add the rest of the business: sales, leadership, support, hr, ops. I mean a 25 person company $200k average total comp is 5mil annual burned cash just on salary.

This is shell completion that you can already do by hitting tab twice (if a definition file exists for your tool). If not, write a definition file.

Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#328

Post by azinman2 »

mschrage wrote: post #310
azinman2 wrote: post #303

There are some clearly cool parts to this. But it makes me feel like rather than bolting this onto existing terminals and shells, one should be created from the ground up to better integrate UI. Why not have actual abilities to show photos in an interactive way (eg ls giving me a grid of photos I can click and zoom on like Finder), or put in form values rather than just autocomplete like ffmpeg giving me an actual UI…

We totally agree! This is exactly where we want to take Fig. The autocomplete product is built using an API that extends terminals with visual apps and shortcuts. Using the same API, you can build an app that interactively displays photos or wraps a common ffmpeg workflow. We prototyped[0] a bunch of ideas like this during YC last summer, before deciding to start with autocomplete. [0] https://fig.io/videos/old-sizzl…

I guess I’m suggesting why fix yourself to iTerm etc when you could just redesign the entire experience from scratch? You’d have way more freedom to fundamentally change CLI I/O, navigation, contextualization, UI, media support, etc.

Re: Launch HN: Fig (YC S20) – Autocomplete for the Terminal

#330

Post by ZephyrBlu »

mschrage wrote: post #314
zzyzxd wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Cannot identify any killer features above what I already have with forever free tools with much larger support communities. It does have the features I want, although not enough to convince me to switch right now. cli can be painful if you are working on commands you are not familiar with. IMHO, this is a better interface than the ones in Fish/Zsh, that provides richer information regarding command choices, henc…

The aws-cli is a monster! This exactly the type of situation where we envision Fig being really helpful :)

Speaking of, how did you generate the specs for the AWS cli and everything else? I wouldn't have thought that info is nicely laid out and documented somewhere.
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