Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight • Hacker News Board

Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight

#1

Post by akbiggs » Sun, Dec 14, 2014, 8:52 PM UTC

Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight
flashlight.nateparrott.com

Re: Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight

#2

Post by jrnkntl » Sun, Dec 14, 2014, 9:43 PM UTC

So it's like Alfred workflows for Spotlight? This stands or falls with the plugins that will get developed by its users; one of which Alfred is thriving [1]

[1] http://www.packal.org/

Re: Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight

#3

Post by nateparrott » Sun, Dec 14, 2014, 9:52 PM UTC

jrnkntl wrote: post #2

So it's like Alfred workflows for Spotlight? This stands or falls with the plugins that will get developed by its users; one of which Alfred is thriving [1] [1] http://www.packal.org/

It's primarily an API on which developers can build plugins in Python (though doing a lot of useful stuff actually requires calling out to Applescript, of all things). There's no visual workflow-builder like in Alfred, although you _can_ set up triggers for Automator workflows.

Re: Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight

#4

Post by nitpicker2 » Sun, Dec 14, 2014, 10:11 PM UTC

the example picture for translation shows "bom dia" - thats portuguese and not dutch

Re: Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight

#5

Post by nateparrott » Sun, Dec 14, 2014, 10:16 PM UTC

nitpicker2 wrote: post #4

the example picture for translation shows "bom dia" - thats portuguese and not dutch

That's embarrassing... I'll run off and debug that right now.

Edit: should be fixed in the next build of the translator plugin. Now to update the screenshot...

Re: Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight

#6

Post by killercup » Sun, Dec 14, 2014, 10:34 PM UTC

nateparrott wrote: post #3

jrnkntl wrote: post #2

So it's like Alfred workflows for Spotlight? This stands or falls with the plugins that will get developed by its users; one of which Alfred is thriving [1] [1] http://www.packal.org/

It's primarily an API on which developers can build plugins in Python (though doing a lot of useful stuff actually requires calling out to Applescript, of all things). There's no visual workflow-builder like in Alfred, although you _can_ set up triggers for Automator workflows.

Why are Flashlight plugins written in Python? (I'm asking out of curiosity; I like it.)

JS and Ruby are bundled with OS X as well and Apple started offering some JavaScript APIs in 10.10 for stuff that could previously only be done with AppleScript.

Re: Flashlight – Do anything with Spotlight

#7

Post by nateparrott » Sun, Dec 14, 2014, 10:40 PM UTC

killercup wrote: post #6

nateparrott wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's primarily an API on which developers can build plugins in Python (though doing a lot of useful stuff actually requires calling out to Applescript, of all things). There's no visual workflow-builder like in Alfred, although you _can_ set up triggers for Automator workflows.

Why are Flashlight plugins written in Python? (I'm asking out of curiosity; I like it.) JS and Ruby are bundled with OS X as well and Apple started offering some JavaScript APIs in 10.10 for stuff that could previously only be done with AppleScript.

No particular reason. The API currently involves importing `plugin.py` files and calling functions in them, which makes it a bit simpler, but it should be possible to bridge with other languages. I've considered using Javascript for Automation, but there isn't a huge amount of documentation around it, so it hasn't been that valuable.