4 ms·

This goes to the article's point about caching; a chat app -- of all programs -- should cache conversations for a fast boot up. Sure, _updating_ the conversatio

This goes to the article's point about caching; a chat app -- of all programs -- should cache conversations for a fast boot up. Sure, _updating_ the conversations -- the "cloning" stage -- may take some time, but why should you have to wait for the network requests to complete before seeing your past conversations? The git equivalent would be if you had to wait for git to do a fetch/pull every time you ran "ls" on a git-controlled folder. It would be insane, and no one would use git (or any other version control).

KirinDave 8y ago
Don't get me wrong, Electron has a lot of issues. I think Slack should switch toolkits. But I don't see how we argue that a famously poorly implemented app is somehow indicative of the entire space of GUI apps and that a space equally fraught with UX issues is somehow obviously better. Especally when we have excellent examples like VS Code, which is cheerfully giving neovim and emacs a run for their money and displacing longtime contenders like sublime, because it's genuinely quite good and plenty fast enough for most folks.
- npunt 8y ago
  Yeah this was my takeaway as well. Category error - author didn't like electron apps, and therefore wants to dump GUIs in favor of terminals (which would slowly become GUIs with his improvements).
- madeofpalk 8y ago
  Slack's problems have zero to do with Electron.
  - KirinDave 8y ago
    I think maybe it's security problems have something to do with Electron. However, I agree Slack's got a lot of issues that are just bad implementation choices.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
madeofpalk 8y ago
It's obvious from the outside, isn't it. Hindsight is everything. But the reality is is that Slack is an application made by a real company by real people/developers who all faced real constraints. Go build Slack for yourself, through the same history they have, and lets see what we come out with.
- apatters 8y ago
  I hope someone takes your advice so that we can dump the slow bloated resource hog that is Slack :)
brazzledazzle 8y ago
That's not really a fair comparison. Git changes but the version you have and are looking at is fixed. With slack the conversation changes and you can't let the user respond until they're up-to-date because if they did people would be on HN ripping Slack for causing confusion. Not only that but the messages can literally change from one moment to the next. What happens when a user deletes a message? The equivalent with git would be having each directory be a submodule and someone is rewriting the history out from under you every few seconds. For technical people it’s easy to assume we understand the problem especially when we see what looks like a questionable design choice but when we do this to applications we don’t have experience with it only hurts us collectively.

KirinDave 8y ago

Don't get me wrong, Electron has a lot of issues. I think Slack should switch toolkits. But I don't see how we argue that a famously poorly implemented app is somehow indicative of the entire space of GUI apps and that a space equally fraught with UX issues is somehow obviously better. Especally when we have excellent examples like VS Code, which is cheerfully giving neovim and emacs a run for their money and displacing longtime contenders like sublime, because it's genuinely quite good and plenty fast enough for most folks.

npunt 8y ago
Yeah this was my takeaway as well. Category error - author didn't like electron apps, and therefore wants to dump GUIs in favor of terminals (which would slowly become GUIs with his improvements).
madeofpalk 8y ago
Slack's problems have zero to do with Electron.
- KirinDave 8y ago
  I think maybe it's security problems have something to do with Electron. However, I agree Slack's got a lot of issues that are just bad implementation choices.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

madeofpalk 8y ago

It's obvious from the outside, isn't it. Hindsight is everything. But the reality is is that Slack is an application made by a real company by real people/developers who all faced real constraints. Go build Slack for yourself, through the same history they have, and lets see what we come out with.

apatters 8y ago
I hope someone takes your advice so that we can dump the slow bloated resource hog that is Slack :)

brazzledazzle 8y ago

That's not really a fair comparison. Git changes but the version you have and are looking at is fixed. With slack the conversation changes and you can't let the user respond until they're up-to-date because if they did people would be on HN ripping Slack for causing confusion. Not only that but the messages can literally change from one moment to the next. What happens when a user deletes a message? The equivalent with git would be having each directory be a submodule and someone is rewriting the history out from under you every few seconds. For technical people it’s easy to assume we understand the problem especially when we see what looks like a questionable design choice but when we do this to applications we don’t have experience with it only hurts us collectively.