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Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

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Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#31

There is also https://www.scriptkit.com/ by John Lindquist which has a great course to get started: https://egghead.io/courses/script-kit-showcase-for-optimizin...

I use Hammerspoon https://www.hammerspoon.org/ What makes it particularly useful is the breadth of coverage of functionality of the API and integration with OS features.

Hammerspoon definitely is nice because of the fact that you are writing code so it’s very nice to work with.

However, I feel like Keyboard Maestro is capable of much more powerful automation of interactions with GUI apps. Steps like Pause until image appears on screen, click on found image, etc… are super handy. The macro editor however leaves a lot to be desired when compared to writing scripts as code.

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#32

Hey HackerNews, I'm the creator of Sol. Here are some answers to your questions: - Why Sol? I started using Raycast, and it's nice, but found it cumbersome, too many features tackled on top of each other with even more cumbersome navigation. I'm a ruthless simplifier and I wanted a similar yet I-don't-want-to-configure-you tool. I also believe that VC money backed tools face the though reality of unrealistic ROI at s…

> - Why is it called Sun and has a black hole logo?

> A black hole is a collapsed sun, do be a stickler. Have fun and enjoy.

No. Sun can never become a black hole: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/why-the-sun-...

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#33

Hey HackerNews, I'm the creator of Sol. Here are some answers to your questions: - Why Sol? I started using Raycast, and it's nice, but found it cumbersome, too many features tackled on top of each other with even more cumbersome navigation. I'm a ruthless simplifier and I wanted a similar yet I-don't-want-to-configure-you tool. I also believe that VC money backed tools face the though reality of unrealistic ROI at s…

> - Why is it called Sun and has a black hole logo? > A black hole is a collapsed sun, do be a stickler. Have fun and enjoy. No. Sun can never become a black hole: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/why-the-sun-...

Small "s" sun. Not our Sun.

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#34
post #15

Good to see something like this, don't forget there is already an open source alternative (pre-existing) for Alfred and Raycast. It's called Quicksilver - https://qsapp.com

Quicksilver was one of those apps that really drew me into the Apple ecosystem. All those neat little tools like QS, Notational Velocity, TextExpander, GeekTool...

Speaking of "neat little", not a big fan of splicing the whole web stack into some of those, though.

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#35
post #15

Good to see something like this, don't forget there is already an open source alternative (pre-existing) for Alfred and Raycast. It's called Quicksilver - https://qsapp.com

We are working on revamping Quicksilver after a period of relative dormancy; I'm new to the project, but a long-time user. We've made several releases over the last few months -- some new features I'm excited for include support for scripting in JXA (instead of just AppleScript), and I'm working on Swift support in the plugin template for those who (like me) don't know ObjC but want to build a plugin. Thanks for the…

So cool! Thanks for waking it up, I'm still using it, have been for more than 10 years, and recently upgraded to your 2.x version. Excited to see it move forward!

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Why is it called Sun and has a black hole logo? > A black hole is a collapsed sun, do be a stickler. Have fun and enjoy. No. Sun can never become a black hole: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/why-the-sun-...

Small "s" sun. Not our Sun.

thats a star, our star is called sun

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#37
post #13

Wondering if it has a lower memory usage compared to Alfred

I doubt it. Alfred is very well optimised across most metrics – memory, CPU, binary size, download size. This is Typescript which means it's likely to hit a limit quite far before where Alfred is.

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Why is it called Sun and has a black hole logo? > A black hole is a collapsed sun, do be a stickler. Have fun and enjoy. No. Sun can never become a black hole: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/why-the-sun-...

Small "s" sun. Not our Sun.

Commonly known as a star.

(But now I wonder: is there a difference between stars and suns?)

Re: Sol: Open-source Alfred/Raycast alternative for macOS

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small "s" sun. Not our Sun.

thats a star, our star is called sun

that might need some correction...

Wikipedia states: The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System.

According to some articles on the web, other stars can be suns as well, if they contain a planetary system.

In common language however "the sun" is typically our star. "a sun" might be other stars as well.

I think most people dont understand and think about the difference and thus think a star is a sun.

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