7 ms·

Fair warning that this is an Electron app. (Downvotes incoming!)

milesokeefe 9y ago
People may be taking your comment as general knee-jerk electron hate but it really is something to consider. If you're sending requests that can return very long json responses, Insomnia can lock up and force you to restart it. Paw is a pretty good native alternative but it's macOS only, doesn't have a free tier beyond a short trial period, and has some UI quirks that made me ultimately go back to Insomnia despite the electron borne downsides. If Insomnia could offload the request response parsing/formatting to a WebAssembly module it would be perfect.
- Cyberdog 9y ago
  I'm seeing that a fair number of posts in this comment thread say "I've had Insomnia and/or Postman freeze/lock up/crash with large responses." I can't recall ever having a problem with curl and a large response. Yes, these others are probably doing something like parsing the response and making it pretty and that's where the problem is. But just sayin'. (Also, most of the time, curl's memory usage can be measured in kilobytes. Again, just sayin'.)
auxym 9y ago
Isn't postman electron too?
bhauer 9y ago
For the record, I upvoted you because I find that a useful warning. I am intrigued by this app, but Electron tempers my initial impression slightly. Putting it on the back-burner for now.
- nkkollaw 9y ago
  Why, though.
  - dan1234 9y ago
    Electron apps tend to be rather resource heavy, and the UI sometimes has that uncanny valley feeling for they're not using any native controls. I'll tolerate a good electron app, but I'll always prefer native.
tom_usher 9y ago
For what it's worth, I use Insomnia every day with some pretty large requests and I've never had an issue with it. With this, VSCode, Slack & Boostnote - a good portion of my daily work is done in Electron apps and I can't say I'm itching to switch to native alternatives. Definitely appreciate how people have issues with it, but it doesn't seem like it's going away and hopefully will only get better.
- euxneks 9y ago
  Slack is a huge hog on my system, but I have more than 2 channels(?) on my slack
  - freedomben 9y ago
    srsly. If I let slack run for a couple weeks, it will easily grab several GB of memory. That is insane.
    - mtrpcic 9y ago
      Hit Command+R to refresh Slack and it'll release any memory it was accidentally holding onto. It's basically a page refresh.
nkkollaw 9y ago
I really don't get this hate for Electron. When it's used well (VS Code) it works like anything else, when it isn't (Atom) it doesn't. It might use more memory, but as developers we usually have GBs of spare RAM, isn't it there to be used anyway? A lot of apps on Linux are available because Electron makes porting easy. I think it's a great technology.
- Cyberdog 9y ago
  I suppose Linux users are used to apps each having their own UI quirks to a certain extent, but as a Mac user, Electron apps stick out like a sore thumb and most certainly don't "work like anything else." Taking your "used well" example of VS Code as an example, any Mac user trying to seriously use it for more than a minute will find plenty of problems. The scroll bars are thicker and more boxy and do not auto-hide; the cursor appearance is different (the line is too thick and fades in and out instead of just blinking); the page-up and page-down behavior is different (the cursor moves rather than just staying in place; infuriating!); what gets selected when you double- or triple-click on bits of code is different. Some people can get over this sort of stuff and use it anyway. I, personally, cannot.
  - mmanfrin 9y ago
    Been using VS Code on a mac for over a year now and literally nothing you mentioned is true for me with the exception of the scroll bar being thicker than the OS default, but it does autohide.
    - Cyberdog 9y ago
      It has been a couple months since the last time I tried it, so I gave it a download to see if my complaints have been fixed. It looks like the only one that has (or, more likely, I misremembered) is the fading cursor - but it's still too thick, it still moves when doing pgup/pgdn, selection on clicking still behaves differently, and the scroll bar is still most definitely visible. Also, there's that weird page-high gap when scrolling to the end of a file - I had forgotten about that one. I know VS Code is highly customizable; is it possible you installed some customizations to make it behave more Mac-like?
pvg 9y ago
What exactly is the 'fair warning' here? You're just deliberately starting a shit-thread and then goading people on top.
- Cyberdog 9y ago
  The warning is that the app will be unnaturally resource-intensive and have an odd UI compared to a "native" app. I won't say I didn't intend to stir the shit a little with this comment and figured I'd rightly it would be downvoted or flagged into oblivion, but now it's my most upvoted comment in the last week or so. So people seem to appreciate it a lot more than anticipated. Maybe every Electron app that shows up on HN needs an "Electron warning!" subthread.
  - pvg 9y ago
    I won't say I didn't intend to stir the shit a little with this comment and figured I'd rightly it would be downvoted or flagged into oblivion, but now it's my most upvoted comment in the last week or so. So what? Did it in any way foster interesting discussion? No, just the opposite. It's bad and you should feel bad.
    - Cyberdog 9y ago
      > Did it in any way foster interesting discussion? Six subthreads and seventeen total subcomments so far, so apparently so. Exclusive of this particular subthread, of course.
      - pvg 9y ago
        Neither upvotes, subthread counts, etc, are a measure of interestingness or quality. You started it as a shitrhead and it remained so.
- notheguyouthink 9y ago
  I appreciate the warning, fwiw. I tend to dislike Electron apps, and avoid them if I can help it. I don't mean to "shit on" Electron, it has it's uses - I just avoid it when possible.
thirdsun 9y ago
For those that prefer a native interface and use macOS there's always Paw: https://paw.cloud/ https://paw.cloud/ (I'm not affiliated with them, just like the product)
ionised 9y ago
That's the information I was looking for. Thanks you've saved me a download.

People may be taking your comment as general knee-jerk electron hate but it really is something to consider. If you're sending requests that can return very long json responses, Insomnia can lock up and force you to restart it. Paw is a pretty good native alternative but it's macOS only, doesn't have a free tier beyond a short trial period, and has some UI quirks that made me ultimately go back to Insomnia despite the electron borne downsides. If Insomnia could offload the request response parsing/formatting to a WebAssembly module it would be perfect.

Cyberdog 9y ago
I'm seeing that a fair number of posts in this comment thread say "I've had Insomnia and/or Postman freeze/lock up/crash with large responses." I can't recall ever having a problem with curl and a large response. Yes, these others are probably doing something like parsing the response and making it pretty and that's where the problem is. But just sayin'. (Also, most of the time, curl's memory usage can be measured in kilobytes. Again, just sayin'.)

auxym 9y ago

Isn't postman electron too?

bhauer 9y ago

For the record, I upvoted you because I find that a useful warning. I am intrigued by this app, but Electron tempers my initial impression slightly. Putting it on the back-burner for now.

nkkollaw 9y ago
Why, though.
- dan1234 9y ago
  Electron apps tend to be rather resource heavy, and the UI sometimes has that uncanny valley feeling for they're not using any native controls. I'll tolerate a good electron app, but I'll always prefer native.

tom_usher 9y ago

For what it's worth, I use Insomnia every day with some pretty large requests and I've never had an issue with it. With this, VSCode, Slack & Boostnote - a good portion of my daily work is done in Electron apps and I can't say I'm itching to switch to native alternatives. Definitely appreciate how people have issues with it, but it doesn't seem like it's going away and hopefully will only get better.

euxneks 9y ago
Slack is a huge hog on my system, but I have more than 2 channels(?) on my slack
- freedomben 9y ago
  srsly. If I let slack run for a couple weeks, it will easily grab several GB of memory. That is insane.
  - mtrpcic 9y ago
    Hit Command+R to refresh Slack and it'll release any memory it was accidentally holding onto. It's basically a page refresh.

nkkollaw 9y ago

I really don't get this hate for Electron. When it's used well (VS Code) it works like anything else, when it isn't (Atom) it doesn't. It might use more memory, but as developers we usually have GBs of spare RAM, isn't it there to be used anyway? A lot of apps on Linux are available because Electron makes porting easy. I think it's a great technology.

Cyberdog 9y ago
I suppose Linux users are used to apps each having their own UI quirks to a certain extent, but as a Mac user, Electron apps stick out like a sore thumb and most certainly don't "work like anything else." Taking your "used well" example of VS Code as an example, any Mac user trying to seriously use it for more than a minute will find plenty of problems. The scroll bars are thicker and more boxy and do not auto-hide; the cursor appearance is different (the line is too thick and fades in and out instead of just blinking); the page-up and page-down behavior is different (the cursor moves rather than just staying in place; infuriating!); what gets selected when you double- or triple-click on bits of code is different. Some people can get over this sort of stuff and use it anyway. I, personally, cannot.
- mmanfrin 9y ago
  Been using VS Code on a mac for over a year now and literally nothing you mentioned is true for me with the exception of the scroll bar being thicker than the OS default, but it does autohide.
  - Cyberdog 9y ago
    It has been a couple months since the last time I tried it, so I gave it a download to see if my complaints have been fixed. It looks like the only one that has (or, more likely, I misremembered) is the fading cursor - but it's still too thick, it still moves when doing pgup/pgdn, selection on clicking still behaves differently, and the scroll bar is still most definitely visible. Also, there's that weird page-high gap when scrolling to the end of a file - I had forgotten about that one. I know VS Code is highly customizable; is it possible you installed some customizations to make it behave more Mac-like?

pvg 9y ago

What exactly is the 'fair warning' here? You're just deliberately starting a shit-thread and then goading people on top.

Cyberdog 9y ago
The warning is that the app will be unnaturally resource-intensive and have an odd UI compared to a "native" app. I won't say I didn't intend to stir the shit a little with this comment and figured I'd rightly it would be downvoted or flagged into oblivion, but now it's my most upvoted comment in the last week or so. So people seem to appreciate it a lot more than anticipated. Maybe every Electron app that shows up on HN needs an "Electron warning!" subthread.
- pvg 9y ago
  I won't say I didn't intend to stir the shit a little with this comment and figured I'd rightly it would be downvoted or flagged into oblivion, but now it's my most upvoted comment in the last week or so. So what? Did it in any way foster interesting discussion? No, just the opposite. It's bad and you should feel bad.
  - Cyberdog 9y ago
    > Did it in any way foster interesting discussion? Six subthreads and seventeen total subcomments so far, so apparently so. Exclusive of this particular subthread, of course.
    - pvg 9y ago
      Neither upvotes, subthread counts, etc, are a measure of interestingness or quality. You started it as a shitrhead and it remained so.
notheguyouthink 9y ago
I appreciate the warning, fwiw. I tend to dislike Electron apps, and avoid them if I can help it. I don't mean to "shit on" Electron, it has it's uses - I just avoid it when possible.

thirdsun 9y ago

For those that prefer a native interface and use macOS there's always Paw: https://paw.cloud/ https://paw.cloud/ (I'm not affiliated with them, just like the product)

ionised 9y ago

That's the information I was looking for. Thanks you've saved me a download.