15 ms·

An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

44 points by gnocchi 11y ago

evandrix 11y ago
How does this match up to Launchy?
- reitanqild 11y ago
  Launchy doesn't require you to install npm first.
  - bengotow 11y ago
    I don't think you're intended to build it from source - you can just get a binary: https://github.com/appetizermonster/Hain/releases https://github.com/appetizermonster/Hain/releases
    - reitanqild 11y ago
      Ah, thanks, again honestly. That is my main complaint against anything Node.js: after having struggled with Node.js before I don't feel like building anything bsed on it. Guess I'll stay with Launcy (or even the new Windows start menu) but this sorts most of my issues.
    - eps 11y ago
      FOURTY FIVE MEGABYTES /facepalm
      - ygra 11y ago
        Well, it bundles Webkit and a kitchen sink.
  - SlashmanX 11y ago
    Neither does this...
marvy 11y ago
Shouldn't the docs mention that alt-space already does something on windows? Or is it assumed that whoever doesn't know about the default functionality won't miss it? Or maybe everyone knows?
- bigp3t3 11y ago
  They definitely should. I have a dedicated button for it, so will continue to use that, but many of my colleagues (at a S-ME IT service provider) didn't know this menu existed. Trust the Indian guy to know, though
  - Stratoscope 11y ago
    You have a dedicated Alt+Space (System Menu) button? Never saw that before, would be curious what kind of keyboard this is. I'm always interested in different kinds of keyboards. Or is it a menu key that opens the right-click menu (not the same as the alt+space system menu), like this one: http://www.laptopmag.com/images/wp/purch-api/incontent/2012/07/ThinkPad-Keyboard-Face-Off_g4-T420.jpg http://www.laptopmag.com/images/wp/purch-api/incontent/2012/...
    - ygra 11y ago
      It's called a context menu :) Back in the day before those fancy keyboards (and today still) the other keyboard shortcut is Shift+F10.
- Stratoscope 11y ago
  Sometimes people just get a great idea for a cool keyboard shortcut and simply don't know that it already has a standard meaning. This may be such a case, and Parallels is definitely one. Parallels 11 takes over the spacebar (just plain spacebar) in Windows Explorer, using it to pop up an OSX Quick Look panel like it does in Finder. They apparently didn't think to check whether spacebar already does something in Explorer. (It does, and keyboard users like me use it all the time - it's an essential shortcut for keyboard navigation.) And from what I've seen in forums and other interactions, they can't seem to imagine that it was a bad idea to take over this key with no option to turn off the behavior. I love Parallels, but this is so clueless!
Mithaldu 11y ago
This is cute as a proof of concept, but it needs severe performance improvements if it's intended to replace Launchy. Launchy sits there with 30mb ram used and no cpu used when not in use. This launcher sits there with 170mb ram used, and 1% of a core in constant use.
- reitanqild 11y ago
  But launchy doesn't use Node.js..! That said, honestly I wish I knew the Node.js ecosystem:-/
- TickleSteve 11y ago
  Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just burning CPU cycles and RAM! Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.
  - ygra 11y ago
    Those TSRs also had little to no UI, and keep an index for fast searches. Images are probably also a part of it since seemingly no application these days can look like a native application anymore :|
  - bengotow 11y ago
    Ahh the DOS days are long gone I'm afraid... A single 1024x1024 app icon on Mac OS X weighs in at 4MB once it's inflated to raw bitmap data from ICNS / PNG. Throw a couple of those onscreen at once in a list and you're looking at 30MB easy, and that's just in images! Of course, you could leave out the images, but you could also just keep using DOS if RAM is a concern :-)
    - unwind 11y ago
      Are icons 1024x1024 now?! And I still think 64x64 sounds kind of big for an icon, heh. I really need to get with the times, and get a lawn I guess.
mc_hammer 11y ago
i really love these launcher apps. this one sort of illustrates the problem with developing windows apps: - you either learn complicated c++ and windows api and have to write your own rendering framework for custom components - or use C# and xaml and get terrible performance with systems with no gpu acceleration - or use VB for terrible performance and CPU usage - or use javascript and node for huge memory usage and slower rendering than c++ (VB has the same issues)
- ygra 11y ago
  Uh, where did you get the VB for terrible performance and CPU usage? There's nothing inherent to the language that makes it less efficient than C# or anything else running on the CLR.
  - mc_hammer 11y ago
    my personal experience with vb6 vs c++ apps..... was pre-CLR though.
mateuszf 11y ago
Would be awesome if it was also working on OSX. Pity I can't and don't wat to program apple platform.
- konart 11y ago
  Why? This was made only because OSX already has Alfred, LaunchBar and Quicksilver
konart 11y ago
>npm >JS >Electron for a thing that should be hyper-light and -fast? With all due respect - no, thanks, but - no.
djulius 11y ago
Don't want to be the naysayer here, but this project is yet another 'I made smth already exisiting but with node.js and the original is still largely better'. I think there are more interesting open source projects that should hit the HN frontpage. So let's start with this one, that computes Wikipedia Pagerank on a single node in less than 30 minutes : https://www.nayuki.io/page/computing-wikipedias-internal-pageranks https://www.nayuki.io/page/computing-wikipedias-internal-pag...
- nickonline 11y ago
  There's nothing stopping you from submitting, if it's truly interesting it will appear on the front page. Don't try to hijack someone else's post.
staticelf 11y ago
As others have pointed out, there are stuff that should not be made with Electron and this is one type of app that just shouldn't. If it is platform specific anyways, why not do it in like C# or something that would make it lighter and faster?
- Rohansi 11y ago
  Because someone already did that. https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox
- oblio 11y ago
  I'm pretty sure that the .NET runtime can compete on size with Electron. I.e. it is as big if not bigger. We just don't care about that because Microsoft includes it in the base OS. I can't speak about the "faster" part, though.
seqizz 11y ago
> The name "Hain" is named by Hyunseop Lee, it means "a Servant" in Korean. Also means "traitor" in Turkish, cool name.
- fulafel 11y ago
  Scottish/gaelic "fein" is pronounced "hain", meaning self/yourself.
  - s_kilk 11y ago
    Huh, in Irish Gaelic (best gaelic) "fein" is pronounced like "feign" in English, with a leading "f" sound.
    - SlashmanX 11y ago
      That's because it's spelled "féin" as Gaeilge, so it's more like 'fay-n'
      - s_kilk 11y ago
        Yeah, (born and raised in Ireland, complete with the mandatory Irish Language lessons), I'm just wondering where the poster above got the supposed "h" sound from.
        SlashmanX 11y ago
        I'm pretty sure it's pronounced with that 'h' sound in Ulster but most schools in Ireland are taught "Gaeilge na Mumhan" so we grew up it being an 'f' sound
- oblio 11y ago
  And it means "cruel" in Romanian. We probably borrowed it from you guys to describe you :D
clevernickname 11y ago
Windows Key then type. No need to create a Chrome instance just to launch a program.
- dzaragozar 11y ago
  Exactly what I was going to reply.
  - wink 11y ago
    You both assume that people only use applications installed via a "standard" installer, that sit in c:\program files (or whatever) and have proper menu entries. I have 4 GB of random stuff under c:\apps of which some things have been copied over for nearly 10 years and countless windows installations. Also PortableApps, which don't sit in the start menu.
eps 11y ago
Native Windows-S does nearly the same thing, does it not?
- 0x4a42 11y ago
  Yes...
myhandy 11y ago
Off topic, but does anyone know what program they used as a screen recorder in the README .gif?
- huhtenberg 11y ago
  Don't know what this guy used exactly, but GifCam is really good - http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/ http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/ - it's not fancy, but it's well done on the engineering side, maintains good FPS when capturing and compresses really well.
butz 11y ago
What happened to tinyapps? I propose a challenge to create app launcher that is 100KB or less.

44 points by gnocchi 11y ago

evandrix 11y ago

How does this match up to Launchy?

reitanqild 11y ago
Launchy doesn't require you to install npm first.
- bengotow 11y ago
  I don't think you're intended to build it from source - you can just get a binary: https://github.com/appetizermonster/Hain/releases https://github.com/appetizermonster/Hain/releases
  - reitanqild 11y ago
    Ah, thanks, again honestly. That is my main complaint against anything Node.js: after having struggled with Node.js before I don't feel like building anything bsed on it. Guess I'll stay with Launcy (or even the new Windows start menu) but this sorts most of my issues.
  - eps 11y ago
    FOURTY FIVE MEGABYTES /facepalm
    - ygra 11y ago
      Well, it bundles Webkit and a kitchen sink.
- SlashmanX 11y ago
  Neither does this...

marvy 11y ago

Shouldn't the docs mention that alt-space already does something on windows? Or is it assumed that whoever doesn't know about the default functionality won't miss it? Or maybe everyone knows?

bigp3t3 11y ago
They definitely should. I have a dedicated button for it, so will continue to use that, but many of my colleagues (at a S-ME IT service provider) didn't know this menu existed. Trust the Indian guy to know, though
- Stratoscope 11y ago
  You have a dedicated Alt+Space (System Menu) button? Never saw that before, would be curious what kind of keyboard this is. I'm always interested in different kinds of keyboards. Or is it a menu key that opens the right-click menu (not the same as the alt+space system menu), like this one: http://www.laptopmag.com/images/wp/purch-api/incontent/2012/07/ThinkPad-Keyboard-Face-Off_g4-T420.jpg http://www.laptopmag.com/images/wp/purch-api/incontent/2012/...
  - ygra 11y ago
    It's called a context menu :) Back in the day before those fancy keyboards (and today still) the other keyboard shortcut is Shift+F10.
Stratoscope 11y ago
Sometimes people just get a great idea for a cool keyboard shortcut and simply don't know that it already has a standard meaning. This may be such a case, and Parallels is definitely one. Parallels 11 takes over the spacebar (just plain spacebar) in Windows Explorer, using it to pop up an OSX Quick Look panel like it does in Finder. They apparently didn't think to check whether spacebar already does something in Explorer. (It does, and keyboard users like me use it all the time - it's an essential shortcut for keyboard navigation.) And from what I've seen in forums and other interactions, they can't seem to imagine that it was a bad idea to take over this key with no option to turn off the behavior. I love Parallels, but this is so clueless!

Mithaldu 11y ago

This is cute as a proof of concept, but it needs severe performance improvements if it's intended to replace Launchy. Launchy sits there with 30mb ram used and no cpu used when not in use. This launcher sits there with 170mb ram used, and 1% of a core in constant use.

reitanqild 11y ago
But launchy doesn't use Node.js..! That said, honestly I wish I knew the Node.js ecosystem:-/
TickleSteve 11y ago
Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just burning CPU cycles and RAM! Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.
- ygra 11y ago
  Those TSRs also had little to no UI, and keep an index for fast searches. Images are probably also a part of it since seemingly no application these days can look like a native application anymore :|
- bengotow 11y ago
  Ahh the DOS days are long gone I'm afraid... A single 1024x1024 app icon on Mac OS X weighs in at 4MB once it's inflated to raw bitmap data from ICNS / PNG. Throw a couple of those onscreen at once in a list and you're looking at 30MB easy, and that's just in images! Of course, you could leave out the images, but you could also just keep using DOS if RAM is a concern :-)
  - unwind 11y ago
    Are icons 1024x1024 now?! And I still think 64x64 sounds kind of big for an icon, heh. I really need to get with the times, and get a lawn I guess.

mc_hammer 11y ago

i really love these launcher apps. this one sort of illustrates the problem with developing windows apps: - you either learn complicated c++ and windows api and have to write your own rendering framework for custom components - or use C# and xaml and get terrible performance with systems with no gpu acceleration - or use VB for terrible performance and CPU usage - or use javascript and node for huge memory usage and slower rendering than c++ (VB has the same issues)

ygra 11y ago
Uh, where did you get the VB for terrible performance and CPU usage? There's nothing inherent to the language that makes it less efficient than C# or anything else running on the CLR.
- mc_hammer 11y ago
  my personal experience with vb6 vs c++ apps..... was pre-CLR though.

mateuszf 11y ago

Would be awesome if it was also working on OSX. Pity I can't and don't wat to program apple platform.

konart 11y ago
Why? This was made only because OSX already has Alfred, LaunchBar and Quicksilver

konart 11y ago

>npm >JS >Electron for a thing that should be hyper-light and -fast? With all due respect - no, thanks, but - no.

djulius 11y ago

Don't want to be the naysayer here, but this project is yet another 'I made smth already exisiting but with node.js and the original is still largely better'. I think there are more interesting open source projects that should hit the HN frontpage. So let's start with this one, that computes Wikipedia Pagerank on a single node in less than 30 minutes : https://www.nayuki.io/page/computing-wikipedias-internal-pageranks https://www.nayuki.io/page/computing-wikipedias-internal-pag...

nickonline 11y ago
There's nothing stopping you from submitting, if it's truly interesting it will appear on the front page. Don't try to hijack someone else's post.

staticelf 11y ago

As others have pointed out, there are stuff that should not be made with Electron and this is one type of app that just shouldn't. If it is platform specific anyways, why not do it in like C# or something that would make it lighter and faster?

Rohansi 11y ago
Because someone already did that. https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox
oblio 11y ago
I'm pretty sure that the .NET runtime can compete on size with Electron. I.e. it is as big if not bigger. We just don't care about that because Microsoft includes it in the base OS. I can't speak about the "faster" part, though.

seqizz 11y ago

> The name "Hain" is named by Hyunseop Lee, it means "a Servant" in Korean. Also means "traitor" in Turkish, cool name.

fulafel 11y ago
Scottish/gaelic "fein" is pronounced "hain", meaning self/yourself.
- s_kilk 11y ago
  Huh, in Irish Gaelic (best gaelic) "fein" is pronounced like "feign" in English, with a leading "f" sound.
  - SlashmanX 11y ago
    That's because it's spelled "féin" as Gaeilge, so it's more like 'fay-n'
    - s_kilk 11y ago
      Yeah, (born and raised in Ireland, complete with the mandatory Irish Language lessons), I'm just wondering where the poster above got the supposed "h" sound from.
      - SlashmanX 11y ago
        I'm pretty sure it's pronounced with that 'h' sound in Ulster but most schools in Ireland are taught "Gaeilge na Mumhan" so we grew up it being an 'f' sound
oblio 11y ago
And it means "cruel" in Romanian. We probably borrowed it from you guys to describe you :D

clevernickname 11y ago

Windows Key then type. No need to create a Chrome instance just to launch a program.

dzaragozar 11y ago
Exactly what I was going to reply.
- wink 11y ago
  You both assume that people only use applications installed via a "standard" installer, that sit in c:\program files (or whatever) and have proper menu entries. I have 4 GB of random stuff under c:\apps of which some things have been copied over for nearly 10 years and countless windows installations. Also PortableApps, which don't sit in the start menu.

eps 11y ago

Native Windows-S does nearly the same thing, does it not?

0x4a42 11y ago
Yes...

myhandy 11y ago

Off topic, but does anyone know what program they used as a screen recorder in the README .gif?

huhtenberg 11y ago
Don't know what this guy used exactly, but GifCam is really good - http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/ http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/ - it's not fancy, but it's well done on the engineering side, maintains good FPS when capturing and compresses really well.

butz 11y ago

What happened to tinyapps? I propose a challenge to create app launcher that is 100KB or less.