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Show HN: My first Mac app, Foreman, free and on Github. Would love feedback
- tzaman 14y agoOne big mistake, you show a screenshot without any real information. Wow! Awesome!.... What the fuck is it good for?
- nonrecursive 14y agoThanks. I do have a description further down, but I've also added a description in the screenshot caption.
- tzaman 14y agoGreat, I have actually found the description - tried to point out there were no apparent benefits at first glance, which should be the main focus on sites, trying to sell something.
- kenkam 14y agoI like the idea and congratulations on your first app. My only criticism about the landing page are some of the superlatives put me off slightly (e.g. Foreman Switches Your Apps Quickly _and It's Amazing_) -- I wonder if other people got the same feeling? Perhaps I don't have a sense of humour when I'm at work.
- nonrecursive 14y agoYeah, that was all meant to be over-the-top. Because... well it's a very simple little app. Like, "This is why Steve Jobs invented computers" doesn't even make sense. Maybe I should make it more ridiculous? Or maybe I should just get to the point, ha. I'd love to know if other people had the same impression. And thank you for your congratulations :)
- sant0sk1 14y agoI could tell you were being tongue-in-cheek so it didn't put me off. The Steve Jobs part actually got a chuckle out of me.
- richbradshaw 14y agoI liked the text – I agree, it's a simple idea and there isn't that much too say. On the other hand, I read the whole page – a first I think for a linked app on here.
- hiddenstage 14y agoI don't mind the self-deprecating humor, but it may put off others. Keeping the landing page professional and straight to the point may be to your benefit if you plan on selling your product in the future. If you plan on keeping it free and open sourced, it probably doesn't matter and may even help with donations. Also, just because an idea is simple doesn't mean it's not a great idea.
- marcamillion 14y agoYes...that "This is why Steve Jobs invented computers" made me chuckle. I would leave it for now - but brace for blow back, because some people (especially here) are gonna hate it. But, conversely, others are going to love it.
- sequoia 14y agoI think your copy should be as crazy as you want it to be. That's part of the fun of give-away side projects: no one to approve your copy or coding style or whatever- it's a break from work-work (at least to me). A word of caution however, I made an announce page for a toy project that was so silly no one even looked at it, even in a highly targeted demographic of users (reddit users; specifically those who post facebook screenshots) http://sequoia.github.com/afonigizer/ http://sequoia.github.com/afonigizer/ So no one looked at it, no one uses it etc.. But on the other hand, "whatever!" I had fun making the tool and the silly announce page and as the Odonians says: "the means are the end." :)
- ANTSANTS 14y agoDon't let a few bores discourage you; the open source world needs more tastefully done over-the-top humor. Most of the times I've seen someone try to be funny in a landing page or a pull request, it's either obnoxious, cringeworthy, or lame. This page made me smile enough to read the whole thing, and I don't even own a Mac.
- taligent 14y agoGet rid of the text as much as you seem to love it. The screenshot already explains everything. All you need is one screenshot. One download button. One donate button. One mention that it's free.
- bluetidepro 14y agoI can only imagine that if it was JUST a screenshot, I would see this exact same comment but saying to add text because a screenshot doesn't explain everything. But that's more of irony on HN comments. Haha However, this seems like a nice/simple app and I'm excited to try it out! EDIT: My 1st joking point is perfectly demonstrated by tzaman's comment below. Haha
- nonrecursive 14y agoThere was a whole section in there which was nothing but silly, "atmospheric" text which was meant to be ridiculous and jokey, but which didn't add any information. I've taken that out, so hopefully it's tighter and more informative while still retaining the overall tone.
- kd0amg 14y agoI'd at least keep "Click on an app group and Foreman closes all apps not in that group and opens the apps in the group."
- bluetidepro 14y agoI tried using it on OSX 10.8.1 but I can't seem to get it to work. It doesn't let me drop anything into the box where it says "Drag Apps Here To Create New Group"? It just does the typical "delete from dock" poof animation.
- nonrecursive 14y agoThank you for the feedback - this is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. You have to drag the icons from finder, not from the dock. Does that work?
- bluetidepro 14y agoYeah, that worked! Could you see if you could get it to work with dragging from the dock? Also, when you switch groups, I didn't realize it "exits" all of your other apps. It may be a good idea to just hide the other apps. Thoughts?
- aparadja 14y agoI think dragging from the dock always just removes the apps from the dock. At least that's the default behavior, and I have not found a way around it.
- nonrecursive 14y agoCool! Lots of people are also suggesting hiding the other apps. I might try to implement this as an option, but what I'm going for is de-cluttering the command-tab app switcher, and I don't think hiding the apps will achieve that. However, this feedback is inspiring me to see if it's possible to hack the task list, or whatever it's called.
- leamoisset 14y agoI've been looking for a way to solve that exact problem for a long time. I'm not 100% sure this is going to improve my current workflow though. Will try...
- nonrecursive 14y agoEventually I'm going to release a command line utility that does the same thing. You'll do something like define a .foreman file with design "Photoshop CS5" "Google Chrome" and then do "macforeman design" and it will act just like the gui app.
- arikrak 14y agoI think you should spend a paragraph giving a more clear explanation about what it does. The superlatives should be separate from a clear explanation.
- coley 14y agoThis is great. I'm excited for the CL version so I can integrate it with Alfred. By the way, I knew exactly what this app did 2 seconds after page load. Cheers.
- Ensorceled 14y agoEDIT: Just to be clear, because I missed it, the app doesn't HIDE other applications it aggressively CLOSES other apps. Including some background processes, system preferences etc. Luckily it doesn't shutdown dropbox and backblaze. If you want that functionality (and can live with bug below) this might be useful to you but I'm no longer interested. So, the app crashed while I was configuring it. It shutdown ever app I had added to Foreman, unsafely, and a few others I hadn't yet added (like Terminal! WTF?). DO NOT USE. It's a nice concept but not ready for prime time.
- brittohalloran 14y agoCan you post some more information for the author to address / fix this? OS version? Hardware?
- Ensorceled 14y ago10.7.4, MacBook Pro, 2.2 Intel Core i7 Sep 7 10:29:14 wwd2-robert Foreman[3030]: 15.000000Sep 7 10:29:20 wwd2-robert Foreman[3030]: Exception detected while handling key input. Sep 7 10:29:20 wwd2-robert Foreman[3030]: -[__NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:]: mutating method sent to immutable object Sep 7 10:29:20 wwd2-robert Foreman[3030]: ( 0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8dd9df56 __exceptionPreprocess + 198 1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff94046d5e objc_exception_throw + 43 2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8dd9dd8a +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106 3 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8dd9dd14 +[NSException raise:format:] + 116 4 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8dd5abd0 -[__NSCFDictionary setObject:forKey:] + 96 5 Foreman 0x0000000100002bf2 -[AppGroupController saveName] + 103 6 Foreman 0x0000000100002c5f -[AppGroupController control:textShouldEndEditing:] + 17 7 AppKit 0x00007fff8e83d5ff -[NSTextField textShouldEndEditing:] + 236 8 AppKit 0x00007fff8e89f0ca -[NSTextView(NSSharing) resignFirstResponder] + 426 9 AppKit 0x00007fff8e38a429 -[NSWindow makeFirstResponder:] + 429 10 Foreman 0x0000000100002cb2 -[AppGroupController control:textView:doCommandBySelector:] + 76 11 AppKit 0x00007fff8e83c7ac -[NSTextField textView:doCommandBySelector:] + 105 12 AppKit 0x00007fff8e86db48 -[NSTextView doCommandBySelector:] + 160 13 AppKit 0x00007fff8e6c6c93 -[NSKeyBindingManager(NSKeyBindingManager_MultiClients) interpretEventAsCommand:forClient:] + 1799 14 AppKit 0x00007fff8ea1b6ca -[NSTextInputContext handleEvent:] + 747 15 AppKit 0x00007fff8e8e5298 -[NSView interpretKeyEvents:] + 248 16 AppKit 0x00007fff8e85dec5 -[NSTextView keyDown:] + 691 17 AppKit 0x00007fff8e33b7ac -[NSWindow sendEvent:] + 7430 18 AppKit 0x00007fff8e2d4a55 -[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 5593 19 AppKit 0x00007fff8e26b0c6 -[NSApplication run] + 555 20 AppKit 0x00007fff8e4e7244 NSApplicationMain + 867 21 Foreman 0x0000000100000fe0 start + 52 ) The syslog also contains a list of all the apps that are running and the list of apps to close, the apps to close include things I didn't add to Foreman and other things like /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/backgroundinstruments.app which I'm not even running. When it catches an exception it seems to shutdown everything in the "to close" list.
- beshrkayali 14y agoWow, great idea! I haven't tried the app yet, but if it immediately shuts off other applications when switching to a group, I think that needs to change, or at least provide a setting to just keep all the apps running but hide them from the tab switching menu some how (i know it could be a memory killer, but for my own personal use, which usually doesn't require a lot of apps running, i think it would be perfect). Other than that, it's a great little app, put it on the AppStore for some cash :) (and add a screencast)
- nonrecursive 14y agoThanks! I wish I could add it to the AppStore but unfortunately I can't sandbox it, so it would never get accepted. One nice thing about Mountain Lion (not sure if it's true for Lion) is that if you quit an app it's usually kept running anyway, so when you reopen it it should start quickly.
- city41 14y agoI've always wanted to write a Ruby app launcher, like QuickSilver but the language the end user uses is Ruby. So you could define sets of apps like web_dev = [:macvim, :chrome, :iterm], and then web_dev.launch to launch them. This app tackles that aspect of my launcher, and makes me wonder if my launcher idea is even necessary. Maybe this app is enough. I'm looking forward to it maturing some more (based on other comments)
- jentulman 14y agoLooks like fun, and I'll have a play in a while. A couple of things from the top of my head; Alfred integration would be cool, currently I keep nothing in my dock (other than finder and trash) and launch everything via Alfred, being able to launch a group by name in Alfred might be cool. On switching groups, when it's choosing what to close, does it only close app's that are explicitly listed in other groups? How does it cope with tray apps like dropbox? When I (infrequently) fire up Steam/games I tend to manually kill off a few of the background servicey apps like dropbox I'd otherwise leave running all day.
- nonrecursive 14y agoIt will close any open app not listed in the app group that you just clicked on. So, for example, if I don't have Excel in any of my app groups and I click on an app group that has Emacs and Terminal, then Excel will be closed. It only closes apps that appear in the dock. It won't close dropbox or alfred or any background processes. edit: And I also want Alfred integration :) I was thinking it could create .foreman files which you could then open with Alfred. Foreman would then handle it the way it handles clicking on an app group now.
- Ensorceled 14y agoIt does close background processes, not all or even most of them but quite a few.
- jentulman 14y agoAh that makes sense, and it's probably the way the majority of people using it would want it to happen. I'm not sure how widely used this would be, but would it be possible to have it launch bash scripts as well as apps? That way I could manually deal with anything 'special'. (just tried it before I asked and it didn't seem to let me drag them into a group)
- mgkimsal 14y agoi guess i'm doing it wrong, but dragging any app from dock or /applications does not work. icons just zip back to where i dragged them from. snow leopard 10.6.8. :/
- silentific 14y agoLove the idea. Congrats on launching. I've tried a number of apps to manage OSX's clunky alt+tab, but none have worked out long term. The only thing that keeps me from trying Foreman is the "closing" of other apps. Like many other users here, just because I want apps out of the way, doesn't mean I want them closed. Is there no way to filter them from the task list instead? You do make it clear on the site that Foreman closes apps, but I did come back to HN to confirm via the comments.
- nonrecursive 14y agoThank you :) As far as I know, any app that's active on the dock will show up in the task list. You might want to try out Witch - I'm not 100% sure that it does what you want, but it might. Good luck!
- numeral_two 14y agoCool. If you are going to head towards a CLI version, consider a name change though. Foreman is also the name of a very popular CLI based web development tool (https://github.com/ddollar/foreman https://github.com/ddollar/foreman)
- nonrecursive 14y agoYeah, the cli tool will probably be called "macforeman"
- Karunamon 14y agoSeconded - it's also the name of an automation framework that uses Puppet (http://theforeman.org/ http://theforeman.org/). I got really excited for a minute upon seeing the headline thinking this was a Mac native interface or somesuch.
- sfaruque 14y agoI really like this app. My current way of doing this is keeping everything inside Launchpad folders and opening them individually. Foreman seems to solve this daily issue. My only real suggestion is that you change the text on the right side: Click on an app group and Foreman closes all apps not in that group and opens the apps in the group. To something simpler, like: One click to Launch all Grouped Apps & Close everything else!
- nonrecursive 14y agoThanks! I'm totally going to steal your suggestion. I was trying to come up with something simpler but couldn't, so thanks again.
- tigroferoce 14y agoVery nice app. I would add the possibility to drag from the dock and a group for never closing apps (such as mail or browser). Many thanks for sharing on github. BTW, would you consider using a well known license (e.g. GPL or MIT)?
- nonrecursive 14y agoThanks, and thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure how to get it to work when dragging from the doc but I'd like to. A "never close" group is next on my todo list :) And it does in fact use the MIT license: https://github.com/flyingmachine/foreman/blob/master/LICENSE https://github.com/flyingmachine/foreman/blob/master/LICENSE
- king_magic 14y agoMight want to work on your website's copy. "What a pain in the ass!" and "Holy smokes!!!!!" doesn't instill much confidence, to be frank.
- pedalpete 14y agoI actually disagree at this point. Maybe when he has more traction and can be considered a larger and more well known app he can update it to sound more professional. But at the moment his copy makes it sound like this is an app he created because he wanted it and thought it was cool. It's like he's talking directly to the reader in a VERY casual way. Maybe too casual for long-term, but at the moment, I think it works.
- awolf 14y agoI agree. The copy comes off as authentic and in a way is refreshing to see. It's just a dude who made an app and is having some fun with it. Good on him.
- marcamillion 14y agoIt definitely is polarizing, but I can see people liking it. At first it kinda jarred me too...but the more I read it, it actually grew on me pretty quickly.
- sequoia 14y agoIt's a pet project that he's giving away for free... I say let him have his fun. Do you think the aim is to inspire confidence in the user (or do you think it should be)? Remeber: he's not asking anyone to open their wallets; frankly I think fewer guarantees are better (see the "no guarantee this software will do anything" disclaimers on many FOSS projects). If people want more sober language and "professionalism," let them go pay for it- might be better that they look elsewhere. :)
- tptacek 14y agoThis comment is part of an annoying trend on HN lately, of people looking at announcements for new companies or products and then picking nits with the copy, the layout, the formatting, the SSL configuration, and screenshots, and what- have- you to talk about the "lack of confidence" they have in the announcement. What makes this such a great example of that trend and how silly it is is that you are here discussing the confidence you have... in a free app switcher.
- ktusznio 14y agoI'd add some good use-cases for this. They're outlined in the screenshot and the blurb next to it, but a couple paragraphs below the fold going over your workflow would provide a more illustrative example.
- pjbeardsley 14y agoVery cool, looking forward to trying it out. I would start versioning your releases—even if you start at something like 0.1.0. Then add a changelog to the site and drop tags in git corresponding to each release.
- peterhajas 14y agoCan you please sign the app with a developer certificate?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ehsanu1 14y agoAnother way to save app-switching sanity: Get 9 or 10 work spaces. Set up command+number keyboard shortcuts to switch to that number. Use a single app on every workspace. Scales well to 10 or so apps open simultaneously. Basically, I configured OSX to imitate XMonad to some extent. It's not as good, but it works and is a lot better than using the mouse or command-tab.
- fusiongyro 14y agoI did the same thing with KDE and have been very productive with it.
- mukaiji 14y agoI think it's a great idea! It definitely has issues, but keep at it because it's a great start. Here's another feature idea: when I'm using xcode, i don't want other distraction to come in; so maybe find a way to make it harder for me to open browsers and other distraction (i see you, hn & reddit).
- rodly 14y ago"when I'm using xcode, i don't want other distraction to come in; so maybe find a way to make it harder for me to open browsers and other distraction" How is that related to his application? Your idea would probably make more sense as a separate application.
- nonrecursive 14y agoI agree with rodly that this feels like a different app. If someone does make it, I hope s/he calls it "No Touching!" after the recurring joke in Arrested Development, where every time a family member tries to touch imprisoned George Bluth, Senior, a prison guard yells "No Touching!"
- enduu 14y agoThe concept is really awesome and I'm excited about what the app could turn into. My suggestions would be to fix the force closing issues, and to turn this into a taskbar style app which stays opened all the time, instead of having to open/close every time you want to switch to a different environment. Also, a more polished ui/ux would be apreciated, I don't like the way you add apps to the group. But for starters, good freaking job.
- theDaveB 14y agoLooks a really good app and I understood exactly what it does, just be first image and text. What I would like though is a little tick box for it to not close apps that are already open. Also when creating a group, what space (think that's what they are called) it should open in. My whole family uses my mac, so I tend to open all my apps in the second space and leave their apps open in the first. Be great if I could use your app to quickly open all my apps in space 2 and then when am finished close them all again. Dave
- dalacv 14y agoit crashed Outlook. Also, it would be nice if it stayed open in the menu bar up top.
- nonrecursive 14y agoI've updated the app so that you can now define a list of apps that won't ever be closed.