Shrugs.app – A native Slack client for macOS

Post by amatecha » Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 5:48 AM UTC

aeyes wrote: post #115

amatecha wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm of the opinion that using unofficial clients for any online service should be a legal right (unless those unofficial clients cause harm to the respective service, but existing laws/regulations around that would already cover such cases). That doesn't mean the service has to specifically support the unofficial client, but they just can't intentionally block it (or forbid its use).

I am pretty certain that I can prove any client as harmful. I have been on the receiving end of apps misbehaving plenty of times, no matter which platform (JS, iOS, Android). And these were official apps with dedicated development teams. Endless loops which flood you with API calls are a common issue, managing state is hard. Rate-limiting does not completely solve this.

Post by ungamedplayer » Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 5:54 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #81

vzaliva wrote: post #4

It looks nice, but if you plan to try it as you default Slack client be aware it is lacking many features: - Edit posted messages (big one, TBA) - Authentication w/ XOXC tokens - Loading older messages - Typing indicators - Starring & Pinning things - Search - Sharing messages - Screensharing and Calls (aka Screenhero) - Joining and creating channels

I would also expect the authors are going to have a hard time keeping up with Slack. One of Slack's goals in picking their architecture was to allow for experimentation, iteration, and expansion. Reverse-engineering an API inevitably means being behind. And given the number of engineers Slack has, it could well mean being further and further behind over time.

Post by tumult » Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 6:06 AM UTC

heartbreak wrote: post #62

tlrobinson wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not a lawyer, but I believe Slack would have to show they were harmed in some way to successfully sue. They can certainly attempt to block 3rd party clients, though. Or threaten to / actually sue, even if they’re unlikely to be successful.

Unlikely to be successful? This app has near zero chance of surviving a legal challenge from Slack.

Post by ramraj07 » Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 6:09 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #90

st3fan wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but multiple windows! OMG! I find managing multiple conversations with Slack so incredibly challenging. Having multiple windows open for active conversations is sooo good.

It's funny to see how basically all the official mainstream IM clients like AIM, MSN, ICQ, etc. used to be 1-window-per-conversation, but then in some odd wave of "modernity" (for lack of a better term) that was all dispensed with, and then now, multiple windows is somehow heralded as a new feature again. To me, it's just common sense that each conversation should be in its own window, instead of stuffing them all in…

Post by bartvk » Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 6:17 AM UTC

klabb3 wrote: post #107

toastercat wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree to disagree. Selecting a channel in Slack takes like 300ms for me almost every time. There seems to be an inherent UI lag with Slack and Discord. Ripcord, on the other hand, is instantaneous.

Wholeheartedly agree that that's not acceptable performance, but blaming electron, which runs on chromium which is famously fast (despite its other issues) seems misguided. To me it sounds like an artifact of architectural choices, eg by polling before rendering to avoid flicker, lack of client side caching, or possibly just bloat. Companies won't stop their poor software practices even if they switched to native.